- Choose an English word.
- Make another word from it by changing just one alphabet (alphabit :) ). In other words, a letter can be added, removed or changed from it, to get the new word.
Send the (now misspelled) words to perspective@mercurynews.com.
I sent the following entries ...
- buscher (noun, pronounced, bu-sh-er) -- (the alphabit 't' in butcher replaced by 's') -- A hawkish head of any powerful state who defies sane opinions and invades other states based on false intelligence information and faulty judgment. Irresponsible acts by such a person usually result in wide spread anger and devastation and claims several innocent lives. A typical usage could be: "The beginning and the end of the twentieth century saw some of the worst buschers of all time. We hope the twenty-first century has something better in store for humanity."
- milemma (noun, pronounced, mii-le-ma) -- (the alphabit 'd' in dilemma replaced by 'm') -- A state of mind (usually a disorder) that makes a person confused between various impressions of living world. When in this state of mind, the person often thinks that the physical things seen (by other normal human beings) are unreal and that there is a parallel universe existing somewhere. Such a person usually has hard time believing that a life is neither a movie nor a dream.
- wittok (noun, pronounced, y-2-k) -- (the alphabit 'l' in wittol replaced by 'k') -- An overly hyped phenomenon that is predicted to happen some time in future in anticipation of which, the world appears to prepare carefully and meticulously. The predictions usually hint at disruptions to normal human life. The topic gets such an attention that even common people in remote parts of the globe discuss it over lunch or dinner (as if some comet were to hit the mother Earth). When the predicted date/time passes, nothing happens. A typical usage could be: "In spite of technological advancements, the scientific community is predicting rather too many wittoks lately."
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The winners are at: http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/editorial/13268025.htm
Our judges were Mercury News staff, two men and a woman. They judged the three submissions shown below to be the winners. ``Hubrids,'' a rare double play on words, and ``nagosecond'' tied for first place. "Kung flu" also was judged a winner.
"Hubrids," n. the excessive pride of Prius owners
-- Russ Atkinson, Los Altos
"Nagosecond," n. the amount of time between the shouted command to do something and the moment when you whould have accomplished the task on your own.
-- Allen Fleishman, San Jose
"Kung flu," n. an Asian variety that really knocks you out.
-- Jo Ann Lawlor, San Jose
