A.Word.A.Day -- verbigeration

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verbigeration

(vuhr-bij-uh-RAY-shun)

noun: Obsessive repetition of meaningless words and phrases.

[From Latin verbigerare (to talk, chat), from verbum (word) + gerere (to carry on).]

"Some words are standard, but with a twist; some are liberated from patriarchal prejudice and restored to archaic meanings; some are new and sharp as an ungrateful crone, and a feast for (Mary) Daly familiars. A sample:
'Abominable snowmen of androcratic academia: freezers and packagers of learning; chilling throng of frigid fellows, specialists in verbigeration and refrigeration of knowledge.'"
Audrey DeLaMartre; Bible Speaks to Fill Readers With 'Holy Chutzpah', The Star Tribune (Minneapolis); Nov 1, 1987.

X-Bonus

The automobile has not merely taken over the street, it has dissolved the living tissue of the city. Its appetite for space is absolutely insatiable; moving and parked, it devours urban land, leaving the buildings as mere islands of habitable space in a sea of dangerous and ugly traffic. -James Marston Fitch, historic preservationist (1909-2000)

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