A few new words and their definitions

A few months ago, while walking past some buildings that displayed brass plates for the various medical specialists who practised therein, I noticed a brass plate for an Ear, Nose and Throat Consultant whose name was Dr. Garg.  I observed that this distinguished medico may well have been the person who invented gargling.  (Sorry about that, but this is just the way my mind works.)

Frequently, particularly in the field of medicine, people's names are attached to diseases they've discovered or to medical equipment they've invented.  If your surname is something like Alzheimer or Condom, you may well have a distinguished medical person in your family tree.  (But, nevertheless, it's still rather tedious to be lumbered with such a name while you're in high school.)

I've coined a few terms in recent months, based on the names of people who've inspired the words.  I hope you like them.

Cundallination (noun, with verb form to Cundallinate):   the act of urinating on a lemon tree with the intent of helping the tree to grow and to produce large lemons.  (from Peter Cundall, colourful Launceston horticultural and media identity).

Dawk, to (verb):  to parlay expertise in an area in which one is an acknowledged expert (say, evolutionary biology) into the right to pontificate on subjects in which one has no expertise (say, theology, philosophy, politics).  (from Professor Richard Dawkins, colourful Oxford scientific identity).

Lathamectomy (noun):  the dismissal from a position of responsibility (by a media organisation, political party, religious denomination, academic institution, business enterprise, etc.) of an individual whose outrageous public utterances have proved to be a liability for the organisation, usually well after the outrageous statements have done irreparable damage to the organisation concerned.  (from Mark Lathan, colourful Canberra political identity, turned colourful Sydney media identity).
 
Pellgrimage (noun):  the act of leaving one's country of residence ostensibly for religious reasons, but also to avoid involvement in embarrassing legal proceedings (from Cardinal George Pell, colourful Ballarat religious identity, turned colourful Melbourne religious identity, turned colourful Sydney religious identity, turned colourful Vatican City financial identity).*

Trumpdashian (adjective):  seriously rich and seriously tacky, simultaneously.  (a composite of the surnames Trump and Kardashian, from Donald J. Trump, colourful Atlantic City gaming identity, turned colourful New York reality television identity, turned colourful Washington political identity; and from the Kardashian family of colourful Los Angeles reality television identities).

I hope you find these new words useful.



*   Note: this post was originally published before the Cardinal chose to return to Australia as a result of the court case in which he was involved.