Urman Dictionary

numean

adjective

Characterized by a sense of personal ownership, responsibility, identification, and possessiveness.

Good luck getting Julia’s permission to change the phone system. Ever since she set it up, she’s had a numean relationship with it. You’d think it’s her baby or something.

prefatim

noun

Fatigue caused not by work that has been done, but by work that must yet be done.

Misha was feeling pretty good. The day was nearly over, but he’d accomplished a great deal. Suddenly he remembered the essay he’d promised to write that day, and his good feeling evaporated as a wave of prefatim washed over him, leaving him very tired.

paritome

noun

A work which is both a parody and a strong, high-quality example of the type of work being parodied.

The movie Galaxy Quest is such a perfect paritome of Star Trek that not only is it a hilarious deconstruction of Star Trek’s tropes and actors, but many people - including the folks who make Star Trek - consider it to be one of the best Star Trek films ever made.

cornudus

adjective

Characterized by a unfiltered outpouring of honest, raw, personal emotion born of frustration or loneliness, especially when it’s not a good idea.

Juliane had never been able to find the right words to express to Ruth just how she felt. One evening after Ruth cracked a joke about the two of them growing old together, it was too much and the dam burst. As Juliane let it all out in an uncontrolled cornudus rant, her eyes widened with growing horror as she realized what she was doing and that she had no idea how Ruth would react.

chuchesimma

noun

A situation where one cannot be sure if one’s chosen action is the right thing or the easy thing.

Argus sighed. He had thought of many persuasive reasons why he shouldn’t quit his less-than-enjoyable job. But in truth, it was a chuchesimma - he couldn’t be sure he wasn’t just rationalizing out of fear of the risks of unemployment.

percoric

adjective

Resonating emotionally with someone due to reflecting an unspoken desire or fear.

When Jorg went and saw Wreck-It Ralph with his friends, the group agreed it was an excellent film. But to Jorg, who had memories of being ostracized in his youth, the film touched on his buried insecurities and was downright percoric.

ossgemma

noun

A work that is unpolished and unsophisticated but elevated by its sincerity.

I know it’s cheesy as hell, but there’s something wonderfully raw and unpretentious about McFabulous’s work. It’s an ossgemma and a labor of love.

dronde

noun

A persistent bad idea.

Linda stood in the airport security line. The more she tried to put the idea out of her head, the more she couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if she started singing “La Bamba”. She knew it was an awful idea and she’d never do it, but it was a dronde that just wouldn’t go away.

kakistolon

noun

A very poor option, but the only one that accomplishes a particular goal.

Clovis was getting settled in to his new programming job, and he took in stride most of the things Dena, his teammate, told him as she got him set up. At one point, though, he had to speak.
“Wait, you guys write your code in Eclipse?” he asked, unable to hide his disgust.
Dena shrugged. “It’s a kakistolon,” she said. “It’s awful, but it’s the only IDE with all the features we need. You get used to it.”

grimmelboleth

noun

A test which exonerates one of wrongdoing, applied not because of any particular suspicion but because it’s easier to apply the test to everyone and some portion of people are untrustworthy.

I’m not sure which grimmelboleth annoys me more - bag checks at the department store exit or taking my shoes off at the airport.

slasca

noun

A task, activity, or goal that is ostensibly put off until more time is available, but in actuality will probably never occur.

Janine had often toyed with the idea of learning to knit and making herself a scarf, but had never been interested enough to actually make time for it. It had become a slasca that she told herself she’d get around to in some vague future where she wasn’t working so hard at her job.

scusel

verb

To avoid answering a question in a way that does not immediately appear evasive.

“Hey, did you talk to Vic about helping us move on Saturday?"
“Yup, sure did."
“And did you actually get an answer out of him this time?"
“Of course!"
“So is he gonna help us?"
“…dammit! He scuselled me again!”

firagamos

interjection

An expression of excitement for embarking on a shared project or journey.

Nina looked hesitantly at Iris. “I don’t want to push you into anything,” she said. “This startup is a pretty risky idea. Are you sure you want to quit your job and come work with us?"
Iris grinned widely. “Firagamos!” she said, pumping her fist, and Nina smiled with relief.

grok limit

noun phrase

A level of complexity of a system above which it is no longer possible to hold all of the system’s characteristics and behaviors in one’s head simultaneously and reason consistently about them.

Margarete enjoyed tinkering on her weekend coding project until one day she realized that as it had grown it had quietly passed the grok limit and she wasn’t sure how the new feature she wanted to add would interact with existing functionality. Digging back through what she’d written, she cursed herself for not commenting her code.

disquorum

noun

The inability for a group to fully assemble at the designated time.

We were gonna head over to the movie theater early to get good seats, but then Arthur had to go the bathroom… by the time he got back, Beth had gone to get a snack, and now she’s here but Chris had to go back and grab his keys… we’re in some serious disquorum here. At this rate we’ll be lucky if we get to the movie before the previews finish.

morash

verb

To deliberately put oneself into complex or messy situations.

Magdalena had gained a reputation as something of a meddler, but she didn’t care. To her, it was worth it. There was no reason to shy away from thorny problems - morashing was the best way to grow, and to actually make a real impact.

borestall

verb

To make a show of being occupied solely to avoid social awkwardness or unpleasantness.

Barnabas felt, for reasons he could not explain, a responsibility to not appear idle while waiting for a bus. As soon as he got to the bus stop, he would take out his phone and fiddle with it, but all he was really doing was borestalling.

password pride paradox

noun phrase

The conflict arising from coming up with a particularly clever password and being unable to boast of it without destroying its effectiveness.

Jonette enjoyed wordplay and couldn’t resist picking creative passwords. As a result, she frequently suffered from password pride paradoxes.

agaregaw

noun

Awareness of being watched.

Fergus, lost in his yardwork, started singing to himself without noticing. A sudden feeling of agaregaw crept into his mind, and he looked up to see his neighbor staring at him. Fergus cleared his throat, looked down, and resumed his work in silence - after muttering “The cold never bothered me anyway” under his breath.

affiliatory utterance

noun phrase

Words spoken not to convey useful information but simply to signal a social connection.

Oskar often found that when he returned home after a long day, conversations with his wife Shura never went too deep - they spoke of weather, of neighborly gossip, of trivial happenings. Still, these affiliatory utterances were a comfort, and just what he needed to feel safe and relaxed.