What Campaign Needs Is A 'Sockdolager': Words to Use

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DETROIT, MI – If you’re listening to a presidential debate, you might desperately wish for a “sockdolager.”

That’s one of the 10 words the Wayne State Word Warriors want to resurrect in the eighth annual list of “neglected but eminently useful words” that should be brought back into fashion, according to the Wayne State University website.

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• Banish ‘Manspreading,’ 12 Other Words in 2016: List

The less famous list complements the 41st annual List of Words Banished from the Queen’s English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness from Lake Superior State University, which suggested we eschew words and phrases like “manspreading,” “vape” and “walk it back.”

Remember “I know you are, but what am I?” — the famous line from “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure”? That’s a sockdolager.

(Are we the only ones who expect either Donald Trump or Jeb Bush, who traded insults — Bush called Trump a “jerk,” and Trump said Bush is “dumb as a rock” and so on — to trot out that sockdolager?)

The other nine words on the Wayne State Word Warriors list include:

• Absquatulate: To discreetly leave a gathering or party without informing the host. For example: “At the party, I made such a fool of myself that I felt it was best to absquatulate after a half hour.”
• Anathema: Something or someone that one vehemently dislikes. For example: “Supporting such a vile, bigoted candidate was anathema to the young voter.”
• Delectation: Pleasure and delight. For example: “I showed up with a box of chocolates for her delectation.”
• Epigone: A less distinguished follower or imitator of someone, especially an artist or philosopher. For example, “Even their most loyal fans knew The Monkees were a silly, manufactured epigone of The Beatles.”
• Puerile: Childishly silly and trivial. For example, “When his old buddies came over, Jake transformed from a respected businessman into an overgrown child, giggling at puerile jokes.”
• Rumpus: A noisy, confused or disruptive commotion. For example, “I entered the daycare, wondering how the teachers held onto their sanity during the daily rumpus.”
• Sybaritic: Fond of sensuous luxury or pleasure; self-indulgent. For example, “As soon as the kids were out of the house, Dan cashed out his savings and had a sybaritic retirement on the Florida coast.”
• Torpid: Mentally or physically inactive; lethargic. For example, “The torpid teen sat on the couch shoveling chips into his mouth, his eyes never breaking from Cartoon Network.”
• Turpitude: Depravity, wickedness. For example, “The trial exposed the public to the turpitude hiding behind his pleasant demeanor.”

via GIPHY