September 16, 2009 11:48 pm  |  75 Comments

SLAM Dictionary

When you just can’t find the right word…

by Myles Brown and Russ Bengtson


e-ty-mol-o-gy [et-uh-mol-uh-jee]

-noun, plural -gies

1. the derivation of a word.

2. an account of the history of a particular word or element of a word.

3. the study of historical linguistic change, esp. as manifested in individual words.


Hopefully the etymology of these words is apparent to everyone. They’re the articulation of NBA characters, components, emotions and events that have become synonymous with their subjects. We don’t remember how they started, but they’ve clearly been too fun to stop.


A

Ahmadical/Rashadical Question—n.: Questions that are not overtly asked, but implied by a change of inflection toward the end of the sentence.

Asphyxspreeation—n.: Loss of consciousness brought on by choking; largely specific to middle-aged, bearded white men who hold positions of authority over short-fused, corn-rowed 20-somethings.

Auerbotch—v.: To prematurely celebrate a victory.


B

Bizarrtest—adj.: Alternately enraging and endearing behavior.

Blogorithm—n.: A mathematical formula whereas an NBA player’s number of games played decrease in direct relation to his blog entries.

Bamboozer—transitive v.: To renege on an agreement and depart for greener pastures. See also: Brandswoggle.

Braxtesan—n.: Mistress/desired woman of two or more teammates.

Brownglorious—adj.: Egotistical preoccupation with ‘the right way.’

Bronipresent—adj.: Complete saturation of the market.

Brontourage—n.: 1115 Broadway, New York, NY. (We can’t post Jones’ address.)

Bronfiscate-v.: To seize evidence of an embarrassing act or event.

Brycophant—n.: Irrational supporter of Kobe Bryant.


C

Christration—n.: Emasculation of a player by his spouse.


D

Damotistical—adj.: A ridiculous overestimation of one’s abilities.

Derricochet-v.: The energy of a player’s game being directly disproportionate to the vibrancy of their personality.

Dolusional-n.: A general manager who stockpiles assets in vain.

Dirkilitate—transitive v.: To suffer a pair of crippling embarrassments, usually in the post season.

Dwebacle-n.: A prolonged display of shamefully inept playoff officiating.


E

Eddyfication—n.: A hefty long-term free agent contract that you regret before the ink even dries.

Emekanomics-n.: Trading a cap-crushing contract for one that’s even worse.

Entysonment—n.: A trade that’s proposed and completed but never consummated.

Evesceyrate - v: To pen a needlessly mean-spirited basketball column, in which every possible bridge is napalmed.


F

Fundomitable-adj.: Stoic and unyielding greatness. e.g. Duncan, Tim


G

Garnettensity—n.: State of mind in which competitiveness is superseded by blood lust.

Gentryfication—n.: An interim coach implementing the same system as the coach who was fired the previous season.

Gilibuster–v.: To explode in popularity only to succumb to plaguing injuries.

Goldsteintatious—adj.: A preponderance of animal prints. And confidence.


I

Inelliebriated—adj.: Drunk on power. And possibly Miller Lite.

Insashable—adj.: Can’t shoot enough contested 30 footers.

Inchuckprehensible—adj.: Unintelligible speech or logic.


J

Jordeity-n.: Revered as a divine figure in ‘the game of basketball’.

Jordamnation-n.: Being mentioned in Michael Jordan’s Hall of Fame speech.


K

Kahndescending-adj.: Patronizing defense of a questionable plan.

Kobomination—n.: Object of  irrational hate or dislike.

Koblivious-adj.: Unaware of teammates.

Knigatory-adj.: Cap space reserved for a player who isn’t coming.


L

Leandrostenedione—n.: Quasi-illegal dietary supplement that makes you much, MUCH faster.

Lobodomy—n.: Procedure in which a player is rendered completely subservient.


M

Macathy—n.: Prideful defiance in face of repeated failure/tragedy

Manuverability—n.: Ability to spend more money on free agents due to talent found in the second round.

Melodrama-n.: Events that hinder a player’s path to stardom.

Memopause—n.: The permanent cessation of any but three point attempts before the end of a foreign centers career.

Mutumble-v.: To speak in a comically garbled or indistinct manner.


N

Nashful—adj.: When a player shows humility concerning an undeserved recognition.

Nellibation—n.: Postgame (possibly halftime) drink.

Nohomovert–n.: Unabashed homophobia. Common in homoerotic settings. e.g. NBA locker rooms.


O

Obamantra-n.: A revised image/outlook inspired by the President.

Olajuwhelm-v.: An underdog proving they shouldn’t have been.


P

Peja Vu-v.: Wishing your team’s highest paid player was anywhere close to as good as he was 5 years ago. (@ticktock6)

Phoending—v.: Wanting out of the perfect situation because it’s just not good enough.


Q

Quentessential-n.:A player included in at least three trades during one summer.

Qweet -v.: To put electronic entertainment before one’s team.


R

Radmanoglitch—n.: Temporary brain disorder that results in incredibly poor decision-making.

Rashalbatross-n.: An valuable-yet overpaid-player.

Reddickulous—adj.: An obviously flawed college player becoming a lottery pick due to skills that would never translate to the NBA

Reggicide—n.: An otherwise compelling game destroyed by inept announcing.

Rondawn—n.: The breakout of what would otherwise be an average player when surrounded by All Stars. See also: Bynumergence

Rubiobtainable-adj.: Available only to large market franchises.


S

Sagarish—adj.: Poor sartorial taste meant solely to court attention.

Samverson—n.: Mythical figure also known as Allen Ezail Iverson (1996-2009)

Szczervitude—n.: Playing for a team that only wants you for your contract.

Shaqlisted—adj.: To join the list of scorned ex teammates/coaches of Shaquille O’Neal.

Shaquacious—adj.:Characterized by excessive boasting.

Shaquiesce-v.: To reluctantly give up a leadership role to a more talented teammate. (TMoney)

Spiketator-n.: A fan who directly influences the action on the floor.

Sloadmonish—transitive v.: A scathing reprimand with the looming threat of violence.

Stephomenon—n.: Rare occurrence in which a player a player actually profits both financially and on the court from a series of selfish and contemptible acts.

Steph Infection-n.: Infection contracted by each and every team that gainfully employs Stephon Marbury. Symptoms include rashes, poor ball movement, lack of sleep, and frequent losses.

Sternilize—transitive v.: To eradicate any semblance of ‘hip hop’ or  ‘urbanism’ for marketing purposes.

Stoudadmire–v.: To depreciate value on offense by baking cookies on defense.


U

Unabasheed—adj.: Shamelessly truthful. And quotable.

Unkemped—adj.: Unprotected sex, usually ending in pregnancy


W

Waltuitous-adj.: Exorbitant, yet amusing commentary.

Wonta–v: To make a decision that eschews team rules, and get injured in the process.


Y

Yellevision—n.: Broadcasting theory that louder is always better.


Z

Zachrifice-v.: A team using a third of their cap space for a baggage laden 20 & 10.

Zentimidation—n.: Blend of mysticism, sarcasm and scathing insults intended to motivate players.


Special thanks to Ryan Jones, Jake Appleman and Marcel Mutoni for their contributions. In order to make this a truly definitive endeavor, we’d like to expand our dictionary with your help. Got ideas? Tweet your suggestions @mdotbrown or @russbengtson.

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  • Pic Posted: Sep.17 at 12:10 am
    awesome work, you guys deserve a pulitzer for this or whatever awards they give out to writers

  • STEWBACCA Posted: Sep.17 at 12:12 am
    first. HaHa

  • Tzvi Twersky Posted: Sep.17 at 12:23 am
    I know this took a mad amount of work. Well worth it, RB and MB. Props.

  • Anton Posted: Sep.17 at 12:25 am
    NymphKobmaniac - n.: An abnormally excessive and and uncontrollable sexual desire for hard, forceful ballhogging in a hotel room

  • T Money Posted: Sep.17 at 12:25 am
    Thanks a lot guys. I damn near choked on my corn flakes.

  • T Money Posted: Sep.17 at 12:31 am
    Odometer- An unscientific measure of a player’s value based on subjective criteria such as ‘versitility’ and ‘intangibles’

  • T Money Posted: Sep.17 at 12:33 am
    Shaquiesce - To reluctantly give up a leadership role to a more talented team mate

  • Darksaber Posted: Sep.17 at 12:34 am
    This is fantastic. From the title of the blog (the word bourgeois always does it for me) to the content. 2 of 3 mad geniuses at slam combine to give us comedic gold (Ryan’s the 3rd). Thank you, boys.

  • T Money Posted: Sep.17 at 12:38 am
    Dynashty - To experience immense success late in one’s career, stirring much controversy regarding one’s place in history

  • Adam Posted: Sep.17 at 12:40 am
    Odometer is brilliant. I’m glad that Rashard Lewis and Quentin Richardson made the list :)

  • T Money Posted: Sep.17 at 12:47 am
    Piercing - A temporary, paralysing injury brought upon by an intense emotion experience.

  • Darksaber Posted: Sep.17 at 12:48 am
    T Money is on fire. Nice ones man

  • T Money Posted: Sep.17 at 12:55 am
    Dirktator - A leader without leadership skills

  • Darksaber Posted: Sep.17 at 1:06 am
    Damn T, now u pissed me off with the Dirk one.

  • T Money Posted: Sep.17 at 1:15 am
    Thanks Darksaber. I’m guessing everyone is still asleep

  • T Money Posted: Sep.17 at 1:26 am
    My bad. I love Dirk. But not everyone can be a leader

  • Robbi Posted: Sep.17 at 1:52 am
    Man, this is terrific! Funniest thing Ive read in a while!

  • T Money Posted: Sep.17 at 2:04 am
    Le Parker - A style of free running around one’s opponents

  • T Money Posted: Sep.17 at 2:18 am
    Powe-verty - Posessing an abundance of heart and energy while lacking offensive skills.

  • T Money Posted: Sep.17 at 2:21 am
    Eshaqulate - self explanatory.

  • jk_light Posted: Sep.17 at 3:05 am
    T Money got some good ones, but the whole work of Myles and Russ is great.

  • Matthew Davis Posted: Sep.17 at 3:24 am
    Great work but a lot of the definitions don’t match their word types. Example: Waltuitous-adj.: Exorbitant, yet amusing commentary. It says it’s an adjective but the definition implies a noun.

  • Blinguo Posted: Sep.17 at 3:27 am
    This overwhelms the ones the FreeDarko peeps do on a daily basis. Granted they could probably add to the list too. All in all great stuff.
    -
    Dumarxism - “Please stop, do we have to go over this again?! - TADone”
    -
    No Darko, Kwame, Curry (either coach or player), or Wade for those that want to attempt it and ran out of players (& add to the bare ranks of W, C, K). Or some Beard-Diddy, or JR Smith, nevermind JR Smith. See a lot of bad jokes with C and K interchanged. Maybe some Jennings overrated quotes or some Childress league disbanding.

  • Blinguo Posted: Sep.17 at 3:33 am
    Bronsolation - (1) All awards in Mr. James’ trophy case not the Larry O’Brien.
    - (2) The 2010 Free Agent not named James whom the team with cap room brings in.

  • sefos Posted: Sep.17 at 6:24 am
    Szczervitude. awesome.

  • Moose Posted: Sep.17 at 7:15 am
    This is kinda like FreeDarko’s book.

  • karan Posted: Sep.17 at 7:24 am
    Starburied: Used when a superstar falls off and is buried away in a wierd and futureless oblivion.

  • Hursty Posted: Sep.17 at 8:15 am
    T Money for the win… in commenting.
    Myles and Russ… that was amazing. Really funny to read. Maybe an updated one in 6 months time for the new trends coming up throughout the season? That’d would be sweet.
    Cheers fellas.

  • sam Posted: Sep.17 at 8:32 am
    “Garnettensity—n.: State of mind in which competitiveness is superseded by blood lust.” LOL so TRUE!

  • sam Posted: Sep.17 at 8:32 am
    “Garnettensity—n.: State of mind in which competitiveness is superseded by blood lust.” LOL so TRUE!

  • sam Posted: Sep.17 at 8:32 am
    “Garnettensity—n.: State of mind in which competitiveness is superseded by blood lust.” LOL so TRUE!

  • Sam Rubenstein Posted: Sep.17 at 8:34 am
    whoa. Tolkien-esque

  • Ken Posted: Sep.17 at 8:52 am
    Enjoyed this immensely, thanks.

  • Ben Osborne Posted: Sep.17 at 10:10 am
    The long awaited…
    awesome.

  • SLAM ONLINE | » Hot Topics Posted: Sep.17 at 10:12 am
    [...] SLAM Dictionary [...]

  • [...] SLAM’s new dictionary is pretty clever. Sadly, no Thunder definitions. Oh well. [...]

  • Allenp Posted: Sep.17 at 10:59 am
    Very nice. Y’all cats are creative.

  • Darksaber Posted: Sep.17 at 11:50 am
    Tolkien, Sam? Really?

  • Matthew Posted: Sep.17 at 12:23 pm
    No Gilbertology under G? And why does the name/email in the comments say Matthew Campbell (matthewcampbell24@msn.com) ?

  • TADOne Posted: Sep.17 at 12:33 pm
    Riptide (v.)- Continuos motion often leading to mid-range splashes.

  • chiqo Posted: Sep.17 at 12:33 pm
    unkemped?! bahaha

  • The better questions “Matt” are why didnt you change it? Since you clearly saw it before you posted, and why would you go out of your way to post dudes Email?

  • Jake Appleman Posted: Sep.17 at 1:39 pm
    Bravo

  • Adam Fleischer Posted: Sep.17 at 1:42 pm
    Great stuff, guys. I was gonna name some favorites, but there are just too many. I’ll be referring to this often.

  • albie1kenobi Posted: Sep.17 at 2:21 pm
    *applause*
    koblivious is great. i’m gonna start using this word.

  • Darksaber Posted: Sep.17 at 2:25 pm
    Slamonline commenter regulars are gonna print this out and comments are gonna be full of the terms. Either this will make comments fantastic, or more annoying. Only time will tell, can’t wait to find out.

  • Joe Posted: Sep.17 at 3:04 pm
    Magnificent! beautiful piece of art!

  • Ryan Jones Posted: Sep.17 at 3:14 pm
    When the f*ck did Bynum break out?

  • Brad Long Posted: Sep.17 at 3:28 pm
    This season, Ryan, this season. LeBronophyle-n:Ryan Jones.

  • Eboy Posted: Sep.17 at 3:31 pm
    I’ve used koblivious already in a real world sentence.

  • izzo Posted: Sep.17 at 3:40 pm
    I too enjoyed this. And haven’t been able to come up with a single fake word.

  • Eboy Posted: Sep.17 at 3:56 pm
    D’Wafall- v: The act of falling down 7 times and getting up eight……even with little contact.

  • Dutch Rich Posted: Sep.17 at 4:56 pm
    uncarteristic - distinctive and not typical; an unusual display of anger, resulting in a strong drive to the basket completing the and 1.

  • Dutch Rich Posted: Sep.17 at 5:06 pm
    Wadicule-v: An entire team awarded less free-throws than the oppositions top dog.

  • boogster Posted: Sep.17 at 5:06 pm
    GayDar- measurement of one`s work on his body, and admiring it openly, kinda like narcissistic.

  • nowyouknow Posted: Sep.17 at 8:14 pm
    Darkovert-n-a person who does things only because it worked out for someone before them

  • Teddy-the-Bear Posted: Sep.17 at 8:43 pm
    LMAO @ Brontourage. Hahaha

  • Teddy-the-Bear Posted: Sep.17 at 9:00 pm
    Shteal–v. : To plagiarize the creative idea of someone you had once pretended to be a friend of, often followed by a cheap thank-you in the credits.
    Sentence: “Baron, don’t be fooled like Steve and tell Shaq your movie idea. He’ll shteal them.”

  • Teddy-the-Bear Posted: Sep.17 at 9:05 pm
    ideas*

  • EC Posted: Sep.18 at 12:20 am
    Gilbertrize- : TO sign a mega deal worth more than 100 million to only have season ending surgery than blame the doctors for your slow recovery.

  • Blinguo Posted: Sep.18 at 3:40 am
    Shaqsploitation - bringing in the big man to attempt to reach a title, when you are in no position to do so even with him. A rushed, cheap budget plan to fill the need of a growing demographic.

  • Tariq Posted: Sep.18 at 5:10 am
    Moperfluous: — adj: any behavior which results in guaranteeing something you can’t deliver and/or underperforming while running your mouth in an irritating fashion.

  • Tariq Posted: Sep.18 at 5:13 am
    Jaxtapose: — v: to inexplicably mention the New York Knicks when asking to be traded to a “contender”.

  • Tariq Posted: Sep.18 at 5:24 am
    GorTAT: — n: A piece of body art that includes a corporate logo.

  • Tariq Posted: Sep.18 at 5:48 am
    Jeromery: — v:
    1- To get paid $30 million dollars while averaging 4.3 ppg.
    2- (archaic) An act of thievery punishable by the guillotine.

  • Tariq Posted: Sep.18 at 5:49 am
    Sorry, “Jeromery” is actually a noun.

  • Hisham Posted: Sep.18 at 6:19 am
    Tariq is the man. GorTAT haha. I’ve actually seen that tattoo pretty frequently on those afwul “wigger-type” (excuse my french)basketball players. You know: white, too many sweatbands, headband, WAAAY oversized shorts, wifebeater on a way too skinny and pale upper body, dribbles way too much and turns it over, and then cusses out his teammates for not getting open.

  • jmart Posted: Sep.18 at 10:07 am
    eballics!!!
    Big L R.I.P.

  • BostonBaller Posted: Sep.18 at 10:23 am
    AnalCircle = A**H@ll

  • Kent Kanada Posted: Sep.18 at 2:47 pm
    absolutely amazing. well done!

  • Cordeazy Posted: Sep.18 at 3:46 pm
    WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My whole office is reading this now. Well, the people who like basketball. All 4 of us, but still.

  • Anony Mous Posted: Sep.18 at 6:50 pm
    Bargney - noun - Someone who stands with their mouth open all the time. Shaquaint - verb - to try to steal someone else’s spotlight. Excellent list guys. Really liked eddyfication, memopause, reggicide, etc.

  • freakish j Posted: Sep.22 at 11:43 am
    exceptionally well done…especially the m-part: the tmac manu and melo references=]

  • [...] for posterity’s sake. I’ve never actually put fingers-to-keyboard on the idea, but SLAM’s Dictionary reminded me to put it back on my list of things to [...]

  • Lecrae Posted: Sep.30 at 9:46 pm
    ginobility-n- the ability to make minimal contact look flagarent… “That player showed great ginobility with his flop”

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