Dedicated That Should be a Word readers (thanks, Mom!) may have noticed that I often make the coinage game harder for myself by trying to cram as many words into my neologisms as I can. I call these additional shades of meaning “hearmonics.” (I think I reached my acme with “brattle,” which boasts five or six, depending on whether you ever call your child a rat.)  But my urge to hearmonize goes straight to the heart of the Why We Portmanteau. It’s not only that we obviously need a word for blankets you can wear like a garment. It’s also that we want words to be fun to say and fun to hear. We portmandarins are preventing English from becoming German, a development that would flood us with WearBlankets and WebLogs — to say nothing of WearBlanketingWhileReadingWebLogs — if it weren’t for our hard work.  I’ve loved your additions to the That Should Be a Word lexicon, and you can find this week’s Selexicons below. Please keep them coming — to the comments below, or to whatever e-mail address comes up when you Google me, or to @lizzieskurnick on Twitter, where you can also just ask me to coin a word. (And I will.)  Anecdotage The condition that older people (like myself) have when they continue to relate the same story time after time. “As I enter my anecdotage, I find myself telling the same stories to the same people.” Submitted by: Mike Kelly, Pittsburgh  Healthscare Direct-to-consumer advertising touting this or that medicine to prevent germs, insect vectors or other disease entities from attacking yourself, your loved ones or your pets. Submitted by: Andrew Langsam, Maryland I saw a man leave two advertising leaflets on my front door. It happens several times a week. I realized that there should be a word for that: Litterature, or better still, Litterature door. Submitted by: Judy Fishman, Sherman Oaks, Calif.  Tramnesia Waking up from a deep sleep on the train, not knowing what stop you’re at, and bolting for the door in the assumption that the current stop is yours. “I had two bloody marys at lunch, then had a serious bout of tramnesia when the train stopped in Mamaroneck, and I thought it was Port Chester.” Submitted by: Mike Malone  In-zonia Rare inability to sleep in due to actual excitement over work to be done that day. Submitted by: Boris Kachka  Kvetchtable The little kid who whines at dinner about eating his greens. The horrible alternative definition: the aged Jewish grandmother who has lost all faculties but one. Submitted by: Edit Barry  Confusionist One who takes comfort or finds truth in the complex, the nuanced, the sloppy. Synonyms: Grayshader. Fenceposter. Betwixtee. Submitted by: Lise Funderberg  Check back for next week’s picks, thoughts on the creative use of idiom on “Real Housewives” and why I’ll never be able to think of a good church sign.
I am thrilled to have company in readers who find it irresistible to use one word when two would do, and make it a snappy rhyme to boot.