“Sniglets” and Other Word Games…

Johnny-on-the-Spot … by John Foster …

I really enjoy “word games” because they’re very easy to play.

While driving, I watch for vehicle license plates.

You can find out something about the driver based on the “message” contained in that combination of letters and numbers.

It actually keeps Bureau of Motor Vehicle people on their toes for folks trying to slip in something nasty.

You’ll find acronyms.

That’s a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside the phrase.

The federal government is a master of acronyms; EPA, NASA, and IRS for example.

The military has quite a few, too.

SAC, VA and DAV quickly come to mind.

Years ago, before I was shipped to Greenland, I trained at DINFOS.

The “Defense Information School” was conducted at Ft. Benjamin Harrison in Indianapolis before I was assigned to “AFRTS Sondrestromfiord” which was a radio and TV station for the “American Forces Radio and Television Services” in Greenland, just north of the Arctic Circle.

There’s often a “pun” connection to acronyms.

“Puns” are jokes exploiting the different possible meanings of a word are the fact that there are words which sound alike but have different meanings.

There’s also a “groan” factor for puns meaning the greater the play on words, the louder the moaning response.

“Boat names” and “horse names” are great sources of word humor and often tell unique stories about the owners.

We had a boat when I was a kid named “Sijon” which was for my Mom’s nickname, “Sigh” and my Dad’s name “John”.

Another entertaining word game is “Anagrams” when you take the letters from a specific word or phrase and scramble them to create something new and sometimes related.

“Dormitory” can become “dirty room”.

Got any college students in the family?

“Gentleman” can be “elegant man” and “vacation time” morphs into the phrase, “I am not active”.

We can also have fun with “homonyms”.

Those are words that have the same spelling or pronunciation as another word but have a different meaning.

“Lead” the metal and “lead” the verb.

What about “homophones”?

A word that sounds the same as another word but has a different meaning and/or spelling.

“Two”, “To” and “Too”.

“Weak and “week”.

“Toe” and “tow”.

When our grandkids were small, we’d play word games like these while we were killing time.

Little did they know, we were building their vocabularies.

Years ago, there was another word game of sorts created by Rich Hall.

He was a comedian, writer, director, actor and musician.

He appeared on “Fridays”, “Not Necessarily the News” and “Saturday Night Live”.

From 1984-1990, he presented “Sniglets”.

They are defined as words that don’t appear in the dictionary…but should.

Here are some examples.

My all-time favorite is “cheedle”.

That’s the orange “dust” in the bottom of a bag of Cheetos.

How about “musquirt”?

It’s the juice that precedes the mustard when you squeeze the container.

“Doork” is a person who pushes on the door marked “pull”.

“Flirr” is a photo that features the camera operator’s finger in the corner.

There’s “krogling” and that’s nibbling small small items of fruit and produce at the supermarket.

Most customers consider it “free sampling” while store owners call it “shoplifting”.

“Pupcus” is the moist residue left on a window after the dog presses its’ nose to it.

How about “profanitype”?

That’s using special symbols and stars used by cartoonists to replace swear words.

“Mustgo” is any food item that has been sitting in the refrigerator so long it has become a science project.

Some of these have been known to develop a pulse.

Here’s one you can relate to; “aquadextrous”.

It’s the act, while vacuuming, of running over a string or piece of lint at least a dozen times before reaching over and picking it up, examining it, then putting it back down to give the sweeper one more chance.

“Gription” is the sound sneakers make on a basketball court.

I even made up a few of my own.

“Jifmoss” is the peanut butter left on the sides and bottom of a peanut butter jar.

How about “crestaceous”?

The dried white stuff you find on your tooth brush.

Then there’s “oreosilt”.

The soggy crumbs in the bottom of your milk glass after dunking cookies.

Try it sometime.

See if you can make up your own “sniglet”.

It can be sorta fun./