Words you thought you knew
Wednesday Ramblings
Stabroek News
January 28, 2004

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There is a very funny parlour game called Balderdash where players have to make up plausible meanings to obscure words.

Well, this week we are going to play a Guyanese version of the game, "Bladderdash", with some words which while you might think you know them, have in fact very different meanings.

corbin (verb): to downplay one's own grievous errors while making much political mileage from your opponents'.

Corbin (noun): a dramatic exit from ceremonial rooms or the parliamentary chamber for quite trivial reasons when cameras are around. (another word for hoytish)

gajraj (verb): to dismiss but not explicitly deny

Gajraj (noun): a 21st century government official first blamed for doing too little to combat crime and a year later too much (way too much).

Kissoonus minimus (n): A strange South American bird with shaggy hair that makes high pitched screeching noises which most people ignore.

kissoonea (n): medical condition better known as verbal diarrhoea.

Kissoon: famous fiction writer

johnd

asilva: someone who sees the bright side of everything, absolutely everything

luncheonesque (adj): a manner of speech much like late period 18th century Rococo architecture

luncheonphobia (n): a deep fear of monosyllabic words

benschop: an exotic jail bird

jagdeoshous: eschewing one's own continent for another

a jagdeo: someone unwilling or unable to see the obvious

Peepeesee (verb): to close ranks when threatened.

Peepeesee: a place on Robb St where Communism went to die

hindsasourus: lumbering South American dinosaur prone to longwinded speeches

nagamoototus: A large bird from Berbice with political ambitions, but which cannot fly.

satyadeow: an insatiable craving for flashbulbs and to see yourself on the front page of the newspaper.

phantom: a figment of Luncheon's imagination that is terrifyingly real

phantom: Who to call when the army and police won't do their jobs

phantom: something else to divide the country along ethnic lines

phantom: alternative employment for retired cops

bacchus: an endangered species which hangs around the US embassy

Censustwothousandandtwo: something that really is phantom-like

sharma: a word that needs no explanation

Questions of the week

1.What the hell are those shiny rims on four by fours that keep on spinning when the car stops moving?

2. Rum til I die as a cellular phone ring tone?