a miserable word?

[Laurence Horn]

At 11:52 AM -0500 12/9/03, RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:
>What the heck is a "miserable word," anyway? Is there a scale of misery for
>words, or is lexiocographical misery absolute?

Well, if it concerns a portmanteau item (a category that might
stretch to include "McJob"), Humpty Dumpty would point out that Mr.
Fiske may wish to consider the lexical form in question to be mimsy,
which in his deconstruction of Jabberwocky he derived from
"miserable" + "flimsy".  ("MIMSY:  it's not just for borogoves
anymore!")   Actually, as I recall my first summer job flipping
burgers and hot dogs at a beach-front refreshment stand, the job
itself was more miserable + flimsy than any lexical descriptor could
be.

larry

>
>In a message dated 12/8/03 3:23:58 PM, Vocabula at AOL.COM writes:
>
>
>>  It may be a word, but it's a miserable one.
>>