Word Challenge

Randy

adj., -di·er, -di·est.
1. a. Lascivious; lecherous.
b. Of or characterized by frank, uninhibited sexuality.
2. Scots. Ill-mannered.

But is "randiness" a word?

This weekend, I had a fierce argument over this. I said no; he said yes. He won the argument--after gnashing of teeth and the flinging of daggers and the tossing of nasty words and the smashing of pottery. One never wins an argument against the great Carlos J. Cortes, Master Word-Guru.

On my side, I had Microsoft Word and Google; on his side were Merriam-Webster and Oxford dictionaries. I conceded the point when I finally found one site that contained a definition for the word. Besides, he had the better sources. Who can trust Microsoft Word on anything?

"Dear, I’m randy; not the randiest I’ve ever been, but randier than most days. If we don’t do something about it, this randiness will kill me,” she said randily.
--Carlos J. Cortes

This thought occurred to me: Does the argument really matter? Words hold the meaning that we give them. Words are tools to convey ideas and thoughts. If the listener/reader understands the meaning, then what's the issue? Perhaps "randiness" does not need to be a word. Perhaps it just needs to be used in a way that people can understand it.

Grammar gurus still debate over whether "alright" is a word, and I found "ain't" in the dictionary years ago. What about words authors made up, words like Muggles, dren, and frell? I still chuckle about coworkers swearing at their computers in Farscapian.

So my challenge to you is to create a sentence or a paragraph or two using a made-up word. The context must show the readers what this new word means without directly telling us.

1. The competition is open to a paragraph or two containing a made-up word. The meaning of this word must be apparent from the way the word is used.

2. Submit as many entries as you want.

3. All entries must be in English, original, unpublished, and not submitted or accepted elsewhere at the time of submission. CYA maneuver.

4. To enter the contest, post a comment with your entry and then email me your mailing address to rita@ritajwebb.com along with an author's bio. In case you win, I'll need this to send you your prize and to post some information about you.

5. Entries must be submitted by midnight Friday, October 16, 2009.

6. I will choose several of my favorite entries and allow readers to vote to determine the winners. Voting will start Tuesday, October 20, 2009, and run to midnight Tuesday, October 27, 2009.

7. Winners will be announced on this blog shortly thereafter.

8. The first-prize winner will be determined by the entry with the most votes. The winner will receive The Prisoner by Carlos J. Cortes, which is coming out in October 2009, as well as free publicity by having the winning entry and author's bio posted on my blog.

9. The runner-ups will be determined by any entry that I enjoyed but did not receive the top votes. All runner-ups will have free publicity by having their entry and author's bio posted on my blog.