We're having a little contest to see who can construct the single best sentence using the following words:
1. defenestration
2. serendipity
3. onomatopoeia
4. discombobulate
5. plethora
6. callipygian
7. juxtapose
8. persnickety
9. kerfuffle
10. flibbertigibbet
These were chosen from Merriam-Webster's list of Merriam-Webster's most popular words for 2004 according to dictionary fans.
Andrew was the first out the chute and gets bonus points for tying his sentence to an actual historical event.
The Commissar's sentence gets bonus points for mentioning the weblogs this started on, and for compactness.
Chicago Report's entry is the most amusing, and sounds like something that could actually happen.
Blog Jones only gets in nine, but it's a fine attempt otherwise.
* Update *
Tim Worstall weighs in with one that may be the funniest yet.
In the comments to an earlier post here, we also had the following entries:
Catch 22:
The callipygian author and persnickety poet, the late Alfred Lord Tennyson was known to think of Sundays as a discombobulated day on which to juxtapose onamatopoetic wordsmithings because the serendipitious plethora of non-defenestratable kerfluffian wordings generated flibbergibbety and anally retentive accusations.
Jane M:
The persnickety flibbertigibbet, Miss Adelaide Brown (she of the callipygian figure), seems to experience a plethora of daily serendipity kerfuffle causing those who watch her antics in amazed amusement to recommend that she consider figuratively the art of defenstration when she is about to succomb to another attack of discombobulation brought on by her horror of poetically juxtoposed onomatopoeias.
Oh, and here's mine:
Serendipity smiled upon the men accused of unlawful defenestration the day that the callypygian flibbertygibbet's startling tendency to juxtapose unusual onomatopoeia helped discombobulate the prosecution's case, causing a kerfluffle among the persnickety plethora of jurors and onlookers.
Anyone else want to try?
But did anyone know to use the correct plural, desecombobulates?
While "defenestration" is indeed a fine word, its near cousin, "transfenestration" is superior. It means exactly the same thing - except you don't open the window first.
Whoah, cool!
I checked dictionary.com and m-w.com and neither recognized "transfenestration." But a Google search did find the word on a few web sites....
My entry: http://vikingpundit.blogspot.com/2004/06/serendipity-cried-persnickety.html
Eric,
You forgot juxtapose someplace. Remember, mulligans lose points.
It was juxtapose he was striking for the camera.
Fixed! Thanks for the tip.
Here's mine. It may run on a bit, but I claim Poetic License.
Claiming the rights of poetry does not excuse one of the obligation of using the thingy called a period, the failure of which leads others to think its all one sentence. And what is it that some commenters cannot actually place their competitive sentence in the actual comment section (here) but rather the reader is obliged to go to a blogsite which they hadn't intended to discover and probably wish they hadn't in the first place ? Remember a poetic license is like a drivers license, a privilege not a right.
noonemadeyouclickthelinkdude,andwhatarecommentsforifnottogetyououtofyourrutandlookingaroundsomewhereelse...itisnotasifyoucan'thitthebackbutton...fuhgeddaboudit!
Sorry, Catch. I should have considered your feelings in the matter. You're right about the punctuation thing as well. Fortunately, anonymity keeps my fourth-grade English teacher from seeing this and calling me to task along with you.
Then again, that was almost 30 years ago, and she was already looking a little rough, so I'm probably safe.
Mr. E.
With your kind apology, your entry has been re-accepted for consideration.
J of A,
Wellseeifyoucanmakeasentenceoutofthesewordsdefenestrationserendipityonomatopoeiadiscombobulateplethoracallipygianjuxtaposepersnicketykerfuffleflibbertigibbetwithoutusingacommaandwithaperiodattheendinsteadofanexclamationpoint.