WOT ...? ("Congressional Balcony"?)

Joel S. Berson Berson at ATT.NET
Thu Jan 30 00:58:26 UTC 2014


At 1/29/2014 04:44 PM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
>Mike Pesca suggests "demaeniation" (fr. _maenianum_):
>
>https://twitter.com/pescami/status/428452196460425216
>
>(Or should that be "demaenianation"?)

I looked briefly at Latin for "balcony", but this and the other
possibilities are too far from today's spoken conglish (Congressional
English).  Pergulation?  Solariazation?  ecthetasizing?  Nooo.


>On Wed, Jan 29, 2014 at 4:20 PM, Dan Goncharoff wrote:
> >
> > What's the matter with debalconization?...

I pondered this alternative, with its allusion to the Balkans, before
making my selection.  But my choice was based on the allusive inner
rhyme with "defenestration".  (And defenestration was practiced more
northerly in Europe than the Balkans.  Besides, debalconization might
be confused with the breakup of Yugoslavia and its successor states.)

P.S. Wikipedia cites an "accidental autodefenestration", in Acts ch.
20 verses 6--12.  Something to ponder every time one looks out of an
open window.

Joel

> >
> > DanG
> >
> >
> > On Wed, Jan 29, 2014 at 4:05 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> > >
> > > Republican NY Representative Michael Grimm's
> > > angry interruption, captured on camera, of a
> > > reporter's attempt to ask a question about
> > > alleged fundraising violations by a supporter of his 2010 campaign:
> > >
> > > [Excerpt from
> > >
> > >
> http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/01/29/268150418/video-congressma=
> > n-threatens-to-throw-reporter-off-balcony
> > > ]
> > > "I'm not speaking about anything's that off-topic
> > > =AD this is only about the president," Grimm told Scotto before
> walking a=
> > way.
> > >
> > > Then, while the camera was still recording, Grimm returned to say:
> > >
> > > "Let me be clear to you: You ever do that to me
> > > again, I'll throw you off this f- - - - -g balcony."
> > > [End excerpt]
> > >
> > > My proposal for WOTCB -- "debalustration".  I see
> > > I'm slightly too late for a coinage, it's already on the Web --
> > >
> > > "Nick Rizzo: Watch: New York's sketchiest
> > > congressman Michael Grimm threatens to debalustrate NY1's Michael Scotto"
> > >
> > > Via GWeb.  Allegedly at
> > >
> http://us.trending-topic.com/New+Orleans/topics/%22State+of+the+Union%22/=
> > ,
> > > but I don't find the word on that page.
> > >
> > >
> > > Or for a Gallic influence, "deterrassiation".
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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