Style Invitational Week 1480: Oh, you don’t really mean that
Give us fake definitions for obscure words. Plus winning Googlenopes and ’Yups.
To GALP, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is NOT to glug down beer on your way down the Matterhorn, it's actually to gape or yawn. We don't care. By Bob Staake for The Post
—If you’re not yet getting this newsletter by email (or if you got dropped because you didn’t expressly opt in since we moved over to Substack): By all means …
In this week’s contest, Week 1480, I list several dozen archaic and otherwise obscure words from the Oxford English Dictionary — from “agonistarch” to “wayzgoose” — and ask you to make up a totally inaccurate but funny definition; using it in a funny sentence is always a good option. Deadline for Week 1480: Monday night, March 28.
And this week’s results are, I decree objectively, a Laff Riot. They’re Googlenopes, phrases that produce no results on Google; Googleyups, phrases that surprisingly are out there, and some comparisons of the two. Like this runner-up by Duncan Stevens:
Googleyup: “Ted Cruz looks like a gerbil.”
Googleyup: “Ted Cruz looks like a weasel.”
Googleyup: “Ted Cruz looks like a hedgehog.”
Googleyup: “Ted Cruz looks like a mosquito.”
Googlenope: “Ted Cruz looks senatorial.”
If you really want to know the real meanings of the obscure words — and you do, since you don’t accidentally want to come up with the real definition — see my supplementary column, The Style Conversational. I also share some classic ink from when we’ve done the OED contest (with different words, of course) in three previous years. And I announce a last-minute change in venue to this Sunday’s Loser Brunch, to the buffet-or-not La Fiamma, sucessor to Paradiso on Franconia Road near the Beltway in Northern Virginia.
LINKS TO …
This week's Invitational column, Week 1480, and results of Week 1476
The same column for non-subscribers (but do sign up — there are always great promotions going on!)
No-paywall entry form for Week 1480
This week’s Style Conversational column
Still running -- deadline Monday night, March 21: Write a Wordle-style phrase of five-letter words (and the “green” letters have to stay in the same place) and define it. See Week 1479 here; see the no-paywall entry form here.
More ways to enjoy The Style Invitational and be part of the Loser Community:
Join the Style Invitational Devotees group on Facebook and the Devs will anagram your name every which way.
Also on Facebook, the Style Invitational Ink of the Day page presents one classic entry as a colorful graphic that's easy to share. "Like" the page to get it regularly on your news feed, or to scroll through the archives. bit.ly/inkofday.
And we're now on Season 2 of the You're Invited podcast, half-hour episodes with host Mike Gips and various Invite luminaries. Catch all 18 episodes at bit.ly/invite-podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.
— Pat Myers, Empress of The Style Invitational, pat.myers@washpost.com (or just reply to this email)
*That's Loser with a capital L; named for the runner-up prizes emblazoned "LOSER," the community of regular Style Invitational entrants now proudly calls itself the Losers. If you enter the Invite, you're a Genuine Loser. But not (necessarily) a loser.