From: glen@substance.abuse.blackdown.org To: 0xdeadbeef@substance.abuse.blackdown.org Cc: bostic@bsdi.com Date: Wed, 06 Aug 1997 10:10:01 -0400
Forwarded-by: romain@pyramid.com (Romain Kang)
Forwarded-by: Brian Reid <reid@MEJAC.PALO-ALTO.CA.US>
All of us here on this list love words; it's the main thing we have in
common. I thought I'd send this jewel; it's a bit more than 20 years
old, but I haven't seen it widely circulated. And it has nothing to do
with the issues that we're fighting about right now.
At Yale University around 1975, people in the mathematics department
fell in love with the word "bogus", and developed a complete "bogel
theory" to explain bogosity. Bogosity is (despite the definition below)
the state of being bogus. In 1976 a fellow graduate student named Phil
Lehman gave me a copy of this, which I have treasured ever since. If
you have not taken any advanced mathematics classes, some of these
definitions might seem a little, well, bogus. I believe that Phil Lehman
and Mike Shamos are its original compilers.
A Glossary of Bogosity
amboguous - Having multiple bogus interpretations.
archeobogology - Study of the origins of bogosity.
autobogophobia - Fear that one himself is bogus.
Bog - The False Deity. (from Russian)
bogami - The Japanese art of false folding.
bogamy - Having more than one bogus spouse. In Islam,
having fewer than two.
bogaroon - Having Bogus ancestors. Also, one whose heritage
is questionable (at least 1/8 bogus)
bogatose - Characterized by bogosity.
boger - One who repeatedly commits bogus acts
bogest - (accent first syllable) (adj.) Most bogus.
bogeste - (accent second syllable, soft G)
Bogus member of French Foreign Legion.
bogey - A bogus mistake. Also, a bogus actor
bogily - (adv.) In a bogus manner.
bognation - The state in which one is mired in bogosity and
unable to debogotify himself.
bognition - The act of bogus thinking.
bogodynamics - Quantum Bogodynamics: a theory that characterizes
the universe in terms of bogon sources (politicians,
TV evangelists, etc.) bogon sinks (e.g. taxpayers),
and bogon fields.
bogography - Study of the worldwide incidence of bogosity.
bogology - The general study of bogosity in all of its
wonderous forms.
bogolgy - Bogus spelling of a bogus science.
bogomils - 13th century yugoslav minority exterminated as
heretics. (really !)
bogomy - An unnatural act.
bogon - The elementary particle whose motion in 3-space
causes things to be bogus. A bogon flux of one
kilobogon per square meter per second is called
a "Lenat".
bogonics - Engineering applications of bogosity.
bogophobia - Fear of bogus persons.
bogose - (Accent second syllable) Bogus with a flair.
The bogus state associated with snobbism, as
in "he is a member of the @i[haute bogose]."
bogosity - The state immediately following bogotification, or
a bogus situation. Also, a bogus act.
bogotification - The process of becoming bogus (rapidly).
bogotissimo - (adv.) In a gloriously bogus manner
bogotology - Study of unusual manifestations of bogosity.
bogotophile - One who is pathologically fascinated by that which
is bogus.
bogotophobia - Fear of being bogotified.
bogotose - Totally overwhelmed by bogosity--truly bogotified.
bogus - n. A device for counterfeiting money.
- adj. Any use of this adjective to describe other
than counterfeit money is bogus.
bogustation - The act of becoming slowly and completely bogus.
bugos - Bogus squared.
debogotify - To purge of bogosity.
debogusize - To remove errors from a computer program (abbr:deb)
disamboguate - What the makers of amboguous assertions refuse to
do, thereby resisting debogotification.
hemobogosity - A heart attack or other cardiovascular disorder.
neobogologism - A new word with bogus roots
paleobogology - The study of primeval bogosity.
Living with these words for 20 years has so completely affected my
vocabulary that when I really want to insult someone, I call him a
"bogaroon". Nearly everyone I know understands what I mean when I say
"that person really pins my bogometer". (Well, everyone old enough to
have seen a meter with a pin...)
Brian Reid