There's a new word in town...

Still on half term, still at my parents.

My Dad, probably like most fathers (in fact probably like most of us, if I'm honest), has a tendancy to 'pronounce' upon things when he's had one or two glasses of wine. If you were unkind and didn't know him very well you might even call these pronouncements just a little bit... pompous. (It is of course mine and my siblings job to puncture such bubbles, which I have to say he takes in very good part).

This morning at breakfast, there was a somewhat heated exchange which involved, in no particular order;

• the Boys being told that they had to finish their breakfast before they got down from the table
• the unfairness of such a despotly suggestion from their wicked mother
• the fact that Boy #1's Power Ranger had fallen apart - FOR EVER
• the fact that Boy #2's dirty diesel train was missing presumed STOLEN
• the disaster of Boy #2 finding he had WEETABIX ON HIS HAND
• the importance of putting the Power Ranger back together AT ONCE, BEFORE getting dressed and couldn't I see what a crazy suggestion it was to do things the other way round?
• the loss of Boy #2's napkin, vital to rectify the weetabix situation (it was of course on the table in front of him)
• the intervention of a grandfather trying to eat his breakfast in relative peace
• and the slight outrage on the part of said grandfather when no-one took any notice of him and he realised that such a normally tranquil part of his day had disintegrated into whining and moaning

The fracas was brought to a swift halt however when Boy #1, outraged that no-one was taking the Power Ranger horror seriously enough, said loudly;

"Please! Can we just stop this POMPERSATION!"

and my father and I dissolved into fits of laughter after I muttered in reply "Well, of all the people to use that word with, I think you picked the right one..."

But on reflection, I think he may have hit paydirt. I mean, can't you just see the myriad uses for the word 'pompersation'? As in, 'let's sit down for dinner with some fine wine and some pompersation'? Or, 'They gathered for a drink in the local pub and after a couple of beers had a very fulfilling pompersation about the state of the world today...' Or, 'Daily Mail readers rallied round today to support the newspaper's latest pompersation about the parlous state of the country's immigration policy' ?

Personally I think the uses for this word could be extremely far reaching, and fully expect to find it in the next edition of the Oxford Dictionary. What uses could you find for it?


Update: I've been thinking. How about using this word as collective noun too? For example, 'a pompersation of Daily Mail readers'? (Feel free to delete DMR and replace with whatever takes your fancy...). And this evening, after (unsurprisingly) a couple of glasses of wine, the Greater Potty Family came up with a classification system for early warning of pompersations. How does 'DefPomp #1 / #2 / #3 / #4 / or #5' sound? The higher the chance of a normal conversation disintegrating into a 'pompersation' the higher the DefPomp rating. Or is that pushing it too far?

Thought so.