Bronwen: “When I limited myself to one abstract noun per sentence, the clarity of my writing improved ten-thousand percent. If it ends in -ion or -ism or -ity, be ruthless. Find another way. It’s like taking a squeegee to a dirty window.”
Me: “But I’m writing philosophy. The stuff I read and write is all ismionity.”
But you know, now I’m thinking about the best philosophical writers. Nietzsche and Wittgenstein wrote with minimal ismionity.
I may need to learn to write more ismionitilessly.
Brilliant! I love it.
ismionity: noun
Pronounciation: “iz MOIN (as in coin) ity”.
Etymology: A portmanteau neologism, combining the abstraction suffixes -ism, -ion, and -ity, coined by Stephen Taylor.
Definition: The overuse of highly abstract words at a sentence by sentence level.
It’s actually iz-m?-on-it-?.
I wish I’d actually started my newsletter for these kinds of coinages, “The Report Manteau”.