Comments on: Specificity http://push.cx/2006/specificity A traveling geek's blog on development, games, and the web Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:49:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Adam Helps http://push.cx/2006/specificity/comment-page-1#comment-50 Adam Helps Fri, 24 Mar 2006 19:20:20 +0000 http://push.cx/2006/79#comment-50 I'm going to suggest "to illaterate," from il- for "without, missing," -lat(er)- for "side, thing that goes along" (taken figuratively as attachment, and similar to the word lateral), and -ate, which means "to become associated with." Literally "to become associated with a missing attachment," or to send an e-mail without an attachment. I also like the similarity to "illiterate," which gives it a nice connotation. For clarity, I propose pronouncing it something like: ill - LATE - er - it That is, second syllable stress, with only the stressed vowel being long and the last syllable being clipped. "Oh, man, I illaterated again! I swear I'll never do it again!" (verb intransitive) "What kind of illaterating fool are you?" (gerund) "I always seem to illaterate these mailing lists posts." (verb transitive) "I'd love to read your dissertation on alliteration, but you need to work on the illateration first." (nominalization) The similarity to "illiterate" makes me want to use it as an adjective, but I don't know what exactly is should mean then. Whatever. Back to work. I’m going to suggest “to illaterate,” from il- for “without, missing,” -lat(er)- for “side, thing that goes along” (taken figuratively as attachment, and similar to the word lateral), and -ate, which means “to become associated with.” Literally “to become associated with a missing attachment,” or to send an e-mail without an attachment. I also like the similarity to “illiterate,” which gives it a nice connotation. For clarity, I propose pronouncing it something like:

ill – LATE – er – it

That is, second syllable stress, with only the stressed vowel being long and the last syllable being clipped.

“Oh, man, I illaterated again! I swear I’ll never do it again!” (verb intransitive)
“What kind of illaterating fool are you?” (gerund)
“I always seem to illaterate these mailing lists posts.” (verb transitive)
“I’d love to read your dissertation on alliteration, but you need to work on the illateration first.” (nominalization)

The similarity to “illiterate” makes me want to use it as an adjective, but I don’t know what exactly is should mean then. Whatever. Back to work.

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