Dictionary offers coined words

Sun., Aug. 1, 2004

Hillel Italie Associated Press

If you’ve never dropped the word “dubyavirus” into casual conversation, urged that an official be “ashcrofted” or commented upon “The Cheney Effect,” then you haven’t seen the future — at least the future according to McSweeney’s.

Coming this month from the publishing house founded by author-activist Dave Eggers is “The Future Dictionary of America,” featuring contributions from the literary likes of Stephen King, Kurt Vonnegut, Jonathan Franzen, Wendy Wasserstein and more than 100 others. Proceeds will be donated to “groups working for the public good in the 2004 election.”

Most of the entries are political, some are philosophical and some simply playful.

Author T.C. Boyle offers several definitions of “environment,” including “a conceptual space, like the airspace over Iraq, which will create a sucking void if not filled to repleteness with high explosives.”

In homage to Vice President Dick Cheney, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Jeffrey Eugenides invokes the “Cheney Effect,” reserved for “the manifestation of personality changes brought on by the reception of a transplanted organ, usually the heart.”

Stephen King contributes “sloudge,” his term for the endless political opining on cable television. Sample usage: “The President’s press conference was followed by over three hours of sloudge on MSNBC and six hours of sloudge on Fox-TV.”

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