Wednesday, March 02, 2005

Announcing a Word

Some of my friends and I like to try our hand at neology, and this is
often done by committee. I've decided a recent creation really ought
to be blogged, since it's so appropriate to bloggery. The word is

cyberhypercavicunicucunctatalinkus

You know what cyber, hyper, and link refer to. cavi means holes, and
cuniculus means rabbit. (There's a bit of an abbreviation going on
here.) Cunctata comes from cunctation, meaning the act of
procrastinating or delaying. This is a word for the act of jumping down internet rabbit holes, following one link to another, with overtones of procrastination.

It seems the a in cavi rhymes with gavel,
the u in cuni rhymes with MUNI (the transit system, not the sanskrit
word for sage), the first u in cucunc rhymes with kangaroo and the second syllable (cunc) rhymes with funk.

There's also a song that goes with this:

Cyberhyper-cavicuni-cucunc-tata-linkus:
It's that common, modern vice that's surely going to sink us.
Still, the only decadence at which no one will blink is:
Cyberhyper-cavicuni-cucunc-tata-linkus.

If your productivity has sunk into stagnation,
And little seems to manifest when seated at your station,
Yet esoteric trivia can fill you with elation,
Watch out for... cyberhyper-cavicuni-cucunc-tata-tation!
(etc.)

I'm sure you can guess the tune. Hint: I am an enthusiastic fan of Dick Van Dyke.

Concept, pronunciation & first known public usage: Scott K. McCormick (webpage coming soon!). Rabbit hole roots: Saheli S. R. Datta. Major morphology & song: F. Emily Cooper. General guidance as to which direction we should move the word in & final editing: Brian Gerke. Absolutely no help at all*: Colin F. McCormick.

Please use this word liberally, link generously, suggest more verses for the song, and sing at will. Thank you very much.
---
*Well, okay, clarification of credits after some confusing Gmail threading--hence this amendment.