Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Meta Mash-Up

This morning I was listening to my beloved NPR. A certain woman was discussing an agency in place to aid young women in distress, and said...
...[blah blah blah] and I'm really amazed by the aaaahhngenuity of this project.
First, I imagine the word she was looking for was ingenuity:
  1. : skill or cleverness in devising or combining : inventiveness
  2. : cleverness or aptness of design or contrivance
To which I am unaware of an alternate pronunciation (feel free to school me if you know of one). But the funny thing, is that she made some sort of meta-slip-up with the word ingenue:
  1. : a naive girl or young woman
  2. : the stage role of an ingenue; also : an actress playing such a role
which was totally apropos to the conversation. Rare is the occasion in life when a word mash-up such as this one can be used so seamlessly. This, people, is the stuff that dreams are made of. Now, to clarify:

ingenue:

(Lolita...natch.)

ingenuity:

(personalized birthday spam burger patties. The only thing better than Spam, is Spam with your name carved into it.)

aaahhngenuity:

(The raven haired young princess, just sixteen, had dark piercing eyes and determined features. Masquerading as a young lad, she sneaks aboard a merchant sailing vessel, bound for the new world. Escaping the confines of her humdrum palace life, she enters the new world, to find love in the arms of Enrique, the swarthy deckhand. To Enrique's surprise, she is well versed in the skills of bowhunting and fishing (she was very close with her dearly departed grandfather). I just made all of that up. But you get the idea.)

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