To Busticate

  Yesterday’s word of the day from Dictionary.com—busticate—makes me think of slapstick comedy.  Let’s take Abbot and Costello—or is it Laurel and Hardy?  They are stuck in a jail cell for some unknown and accidental offense.  The short, fat one with the black hair and moustache says, “We’re gonna busticate right outta here!”

    Naturally, that is not what busticate means at all.  Instead, it means “to break into pieces.”

    Now I imagine a language lesson from a well-educated mom to the eldest of her preschoolers:  “Junior, you need to busticate your cookie and share it with your brothers.”  Later, in his kindergarten class, Junior, holding the shards of pottery in his hands, sadly tells his teacher,  “I didn’t mean to busticate the bowl.”

    And later, as a bespectacled teen, he whispers after his heartthrob brushes him off:  “You didn’t have to busticate my heart like that.”

    Such is the joy of new words:  I can taste them, try them out, and explore their flavor.  Hopefully without busticating them.