Mean

If you’ve ever left a comment on a blog, you may very well have come across “word” verification.

On blogs hosted by Blogger, at least, the author can select an option asking people commenting to type a nonsense string of letters that almost always could make up a
real word, but don’t. Unlike the sort of jumbled-up, visually skewed mixes of characters used by some websites to ensure that users are actual humans rather than automated envoys of mischief or malevolence, these nonsense words generally have vowels and consonants placed in such an order that they’re pronounceable; on rare occasion an actual word will even slip in.

I’ve taken to sharing definitions for my verification “words” in comments if they come readily to mind for the strings on the screen at that moment. It’s like Sniglets, which Rich Hall popularized on HBO’s Not Necessarily the News and in a series of books back in the ’80s, except in reverse. I lay absolutely no claim to being either the first or the best at this, but I’ve amassed enough that I have some favorites to share.

forized — What you become when you put on your glasses.

Grango — The energy drink for active seniors.

MyStyMe — Architectural Digest’s companion magazine for pigs.

beyacho — If you’re, like, so over the frenemy thing, but a total beyotch has become a muchacho, just let ’em know that you’re proud to call them your new beyacho.

Gapia — A melting-pot country of Denims and Khakis.

torchiti — Small Italian fire-bearing devices.

coryo — An unsuccessful attempt at merging British and hip-hop slang.

injug — Where Hulk find moonshine!

Cablegra — The World’s Best Incomplete Cablegram Service.

I hope you’ll chime in with your own favorites, coined by yourself or somebody else, in the comments section to this post — or to get kind-of meta, go to leave a comment and trust that you’ll have a good definition for the verification string that appears. The only rule is that no alteration can be made to a “word” as it appears on the screen save for capitalization if desired, although nobody will know should you cheat…