Each month, Washington Post columnist Bob Levey posts a neologism contest. Last month, the challenge was:
What do you call the little shake that people give a packet of sugar or artificial sweetener to settle the contents before they rip it open?
I sent in two entries, and one of them-- "dextrosterity"--was selected as an "almost and nearly" for the month. I had thought this was the poorer of the two, with "Equal-ization" being the one I thought was surely a contender for runner-up, if not the clear winner. But it didn't even get a mention. I thought maybe it was because "Equal" is a trademark, but some of the other runners up included "Sweet 'n' Lower," "Low 'n' Sweet," "Nutraswing" and "Nutra Swat," so that obviously wasn't the problem.
And the "winning" entry?
Sucroscillation?!
Guess there's no accounting for taste.
Hmm, did Bob Levey ever have a former career as a French ice skating judge? ;) Yeah, "sucroscillation" is pretty bad.