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Selected entries
These are definitions of entries that will be or have recently been featured on the front page as newly discovered. Dates indicate the date that each term was or is intended to be featured. Terms are selected from the pool in the next section below. There is also an archive of featured entries.
- As yet no terms have been featured
Selection pool
Do not list nominations here. These are English neologisms that fully meet the inclusion criteria, having either been verified by request or cited and inspected separately from RFV. Listings should have a quality quotation that uses the term while clearly conveying meaning, and preferably that includes authorship information.
Dates indicate each date that the indicated definition was sufficiently cited by some contributor, although the quotation presented may have been added at a later time. Discussion of a term would be ready for archiving no earlier than one week from the time it passed RFV. Only once the term is ready for archiving or otherwise deemed admissible, it can be listed here, and only if it contains the requisite number of citations.
The entire content (title, definition, quotation, reference) must also qualify to be listable on the main page, meaning that it cannot contain offensive or potentially embarrassing language. Since these discoveries should be unique to Wiktionary, an entry may be struck if it is found to have already been cited elsewhere in the listed sense.
May 2009
- 2009-05-12 barbotte n. A Canadian dice game.
- Games in such clubs ranged from poker, through roulette to location-specific pastimes such as the Montreal dice game barbotte. (Suzanne Morton, At Odds: Gambling and Canadians 1919–1969, 2003)
- 2009-05-12 silverback n. A dominant male.
- Courageously (given Ranger's...status as a silverback in North Atlantic Academe), Kriger dissents from their arguments. (Peter Burke, New Perspectives on Historical Writing, page 145)
- 2009-05-09 picture v. t. To make a picture of.
- Upon the shaded top of the box, drawn in perspective, the artist had pictured a plate with the beautifully executed, twin-lobed, brainlike, halved kernel of a walnut. (Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov, Pale Fire, 1962)
April 2009
- 2009-04-21 legend n. A spy's backstory.
- Both the agent's legend and documents were intended to stand up against casual questions from Soviet citizens, such as during a job interview, or a routine police document check. (Curtis Peebles, Twilight Warriors, 2005)
- 2009-04-10 laserjet n. A laser printer.
- The application, form and all, can be printed on hundreds of printers including inkjet and laserjets. (Dennis V. Damp, The Book of U.S. Government Jobs, 1994)
March 2009
- 2009-03-29 ansible n. A superluminal communicator.
- You remember the ansible, the machine I showed you in the ship, which can speak instantly to other worlds, with no loss of years. (Ursula K. Le Guin, Rocannon's World, 1966)
- 2009-03-27 outgreen v. t. To surpass in environmental activism.
- Political parties scramble to ‘outgreen’ their rivals in a bid to retain or win the support of electorates. Few of the environmental issues which arouse concern are new. (Dennis Lock, The Gower handbook of management, 1998)
- 2009-03-27 parlez vous v. To speak.
- Don’t stand there parlez-vousing, but bustle about and have a good fire in the yellow room. (Horace Smith, Adam Brown, the Merchant, 1843)
- 2009-03-12 cromulent adj. Acceptable and authentic.
- He had a boundless passion for music and entertained many with his beautiful voice and perfectly cromulent sense of humor. (“Benjamin Sidney Linton”, Obituaries and In Memoriams, Charlotte Observer, 10 April 2006)
February 2009
- 2009-02-20 quism n. A quasi-isomorphism.
- Then the composition is a quism and therefore is an acceptable Adams-Hilton model for E. (Kathryn P. Hess, “Twisted tensor products of DGA’s and the Adams-Hilton model for the total space of a fibration”, a. 1992)
- 2009-02-05 apparate v. i. To magically appear.
- What had silenced her, however, was the enormous demonic object that had apparated in the air beyond the tunnel's exit. (Matthew Reilly, Scarecrow, 2005)
- 2009-02-05 here n. The current place.
- For time and extension seem continuous elements; the here is one space with the other heres round it. (Francis Herbert Bradley, The Principles of Logic, 1922)
January 2009
- 2009-01-27 actionfest n. Media full of action.
- Exploding oil fields, trains bursting through tunnels in the midst of an avalanche, plane collisions, fights and leaps of all sorts punctuate the non-stop actionfest. (Jon Tuska et al., Close Up: The Contract Director, 1976)
- 2009-01-27 circumnavigate v. i. To sail around the world.
- Chay Blyth was the first when he circumnavigated in British Steel in 292 days in 1970 in a voyage that some predicted would end in certain death. (Edward Gorman, “Van den Heede rewarded for perseverance”, Times of London, )
- 2009-01-27 what it is? phr. A casual greeting.
- A boy broke out of the crowd shouting, “Hey! Hey! What it is, brothers, what it is?” (Chris Fuhrman, The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, 2001)
- 2009-01-10 stargate n. Interstellar portal.
- With a stargate, travel is instantaneous. It is quite possible that the secret government either has a stargate or is trying to get one. (Stephanie Relfe, The Mars Force Book 2, 2004)
- 2009-01-01 puukko n. A Nordic knife.
- It was frequently surrounded by a high degree of heavy schnapps drinking, and ended in occasional fights in which puukkos—daggers—were used. The Finns fought with puukkos in earnest. (Geoffrey Cox, The Red Army Moves, 1941)
December 2008
- 2008-12-14 blahs n. Depression.
- Not even the blues, just the blahs. They keep sneaking up on me, and I don't know why. (Nora Roberts, Red Lily, 2005)
- 2008-12-13 shaky adj. Full of cracks.
- The advantages of bee-management depend entirely upon a regular temperature, which cannot be managed in hives made from bad and shaky wood. (Samuel Bagster, The Management of Bees, 1834)
November 2008
- 2008-11-26 blinding adv. Blindingly.
- Certain 'details' of 'scientifically realized socialism' became blinding obvious. (Régis Debray, Critique of Political Reason, 1983)
- 2008-11-26 dystheism n. Belief in an unprincipled god.
- These we shall rather call dystheists than atheists. Men in all nations and in all times have displayed more zeal and ability in pulling down the gods to their own level, than in raising themselves ever so toward the gods. (Walter Savage Landor, Imaginary Conversations, 1883)
- 2008-11-24 splendiloquent adj. Splendid.
- I saw her new doo at Fergie's yesternight and it was splendiloquent. (Zenith Nadir, alt.fan.kieran-snyder, Usenet, 2001)
- 2008-11-22 religiophobia n. Fear of religion.
- Hence it is not necessary for the scientists to develop a sort of religiophobia nor is it necessary for the religious man to develop an attitude of suspicion against science. (A. Chakravarti, Humanism and Indian Thought, 1937)
October 2008
- 2008-10-11 fourth wall n. Fiction-audience boundary.
- ...removes the fourth wall of the nineteenth-century novel and, in doing so, eliminates the border between a fictional inside and a nonfictional outside. (Diana Fuss, The Sense of an Interior, 2004)
September 2008
- 2008-09-26 baby mama n. The mother of one's child.
- At least you know Angela ain't crazy and you won't have to deal with any baby mama drama like Rachel be dishing out. (ReShonda Tate Billingsley, Let the Church Say Amen, 2004)
- 2008-09-15 typonese n. Writing with errors.
- Fellow posters, worry not, I for one find 'typonese' an easy language to understand. (Bill Smith, rec.sport.softball, Usenet, 18 April 2001)
- 2008-09-08 giganto adj. Gigantic.
- For some random reason, I think of the doctor at the Eye Guy holding those giganto clicky circles over my eyes when I needed new glasses. (Susan R. S. K. Carlton, Lobsterland, 2007)
- 2008-09-07 YouTube v. t. To upload video.
- The revolution will not be televised. It will be YouTubed. (Jeff Jarvis, “Why YouTube gets my vote for political punditry”, The Guardian, 5 February 2007)
- 2008-09-06 standby v. i. Variant of stand by.
- Orders went out to Drewitz in U525 to turn back from the Caribbean as well as Von Harpe in U129, to standby as emergency tankers. (Gaylord Kelshall, The U-Boat War in the Caribbean, 1994)
- 2008-09-03 deflavorizing machine n. Quality-removing device.
- My mother was too busy running the boiled chicken through the deflavorizing machine to think about shooting herself or anything. (Woody Allen, Stardust Memories, 1980)
August 2008
- 2009-08-16 evil laugh intj. Muahahaha, a parody of evilness.
- I would greatly ENJOY re-acting out this war.... <evil laugh> However, this war should have a BETTER outcome. <evil laugh> (Mark Tompsett, alt.romance.chat, Usenet, 1992)
- 2008-08-15 off one's rocket adj. Malapropism for off one's rocker.
- And our Homo sapiens friends think Argelio is a bit off his rocket whenever he talks to them about our breathable air and somewhat potable water. (George Rizo, Hollywood Stars, 2003)
- 2008-08-09 errored adj. Faulty.
- If an error is indicated the reperforator deletes the errored line from the tape and signals the transmitter to repeat the line of data. (Proceedings of the EIA Conference on Automation Systems for Business and Industry, 1958)
Holding tank
This is a work area for terms that are almost but not quite ready to be submitted into the selection pool above. In the first section below, only uncertainty at some level would keep a term from being included. Approval may require a cursory review of the three citations or consideration of factors such as consistent spelling, idiomaticity, or appropriate language.
Awaiting secondary approval
- 2009-03-11 captious adj. Intended to entrap.
- I know I love in vain, strive against hope / Yet in this captious and intenible sieve / I still pour in the waters of my love (William Shakespeare, All's Well that Ends Well, 1598)
- 2009-03-10 urban Indian n. A Native American who lives in a city.
- While the urban Indian may have a higher “per capita” income per year than his reserve counterpart, other factors must be considered for a comparison. (James Frideres, Canada’s Indians: Contemporary Conflicts, 1974)
- 2009-02-23 haxx0r n. A computer hacker.
- Seems that while he was out supporting them in his role as Uber Haxx0r, she was at home letting script kiddies bust root on her box. (Ryan Russell et al., Stealing the Network, How to Own a Continent, 2004)
Awaiting archiving if no objections
- 2009-06-20 première danseuse n. Lead ballerina.
- In 1935 she joined the company formed by Leon Woizikowski, touring Germany, France and Spain, and became première danseuse of the Metropolitan Opera Company, New York. (Albert Ernest Wier, Thesaurus of the Arts, 1943)
- 2009-05-19 long goodbye n. Alzheimer's disease.
- Gene-inspired drugs to blunt diseases of aging will begin arriving to help deal with the T. rex of demographic trends: the baby-boomers’ long goodbye. (David Stripp, “Blessings from the Book of Life”, Fortune, 6 March 2000)
- 2009-01-22 gingerism n. Prejudice against redheads.
- Gingerism in the workplace could form the basis of formal grievances or constructive dismissal cases, an employment lawyer has warned. (“Red hair bullying cases could end up in court”, The Register, 14 June 2007)
Awaiting suitable quotation or its extension
- 2009-06-08 whatever creams your twinkie intj. Do what you will.
- 2009-05-29 militarian n. Person of military service.
- 2009-05-08 class n. Best of its kind.
- 2009-02-27 aff. abbr. affirmed
- 2009-01-13 misunderestimate v. To insufficiently underestimate.
- almost sure to misunderstand and misunderestimate the significance of the question at hand. (American Diplomacy on the Bosphorous, 1897)
- 2008-11-17 awkweird adj. Awkward and weird.
Awaiting additional citation
- frecency n. A heuristic based on frequency and recency.
- So the more often and the more recently you’ve been there, the higher “frecency” it has and the higher it’s rated. (“FireFox 3: A Browser Odyssey”, Maximum PC, 2008)
- gym bunny n. A muscular gay man.
- misgo v. To go wrong.
- New Game+ n. Unlocked video game content.
- With no way to adjust difficulty, even in a New Game+ mode, veteran gamers will find little to challenge them outside of the dungeon puzzles and boss fights. (Shoeless Wayne Santos, GameAxis Unwired, № 39, 2006)
- phenomenon n. An object as perceived.
- strafe n. To sidestep.
- If the NPC is close to the player, he may also try using the tried-and-true Quake circle-strafing technique. (Jana Hallford, Swords and Circuitry, 2001)
- tabiya n. An opening position after a standardized sequence of plays.
Nominations may include only defined English terms that have been cited in three independent, durably archived works. Simply list the term in the section below, being sure to ] the link and use four tildes (~~~~) to sign. If ambiguous, briefly indicate which definition is being nominated. Another contributor will inspect the citations and indicated approval. This process mimics RFV but is intended as a less formal alternative. Especially in the case that an entry does not yet pass, all talk should occur on the entry's talk page.
Nominations will not be included in the selection pool above until at least one full week after being passed. A listing will be entirely removed if it is diverted to re-verification, ignored if requested for cleanup or deletion, and struck if its content is not deemed worthy of featuring on the main page, even if passed. For instance, previously documented use may remove a given sense from consideration.
Some content is judged more subjectively, depending on circumstance. Brand names are not included unless they are clearly genericized like the singular Cheerio. Names of specific people or places are excluded except for nicknames like the singular Beatle. Acronyms that are used in lingo are preferable to those that are encyclopedic. Inflections, misspellings, and eye-dialectical forms are generally overlooked while the right malapropism might be considered interesting.
List of nomination