This afternoon, a conversation on FriendFeed (see previous post also, and yes, I thought about it at the time) began with an asserted dichotomy–and one of those commenting noted that she doesn’t fit into that neat dichotomy.
Neither did I, and I casually commented that I must be another “dichotomyoddity.” Mark Lindner picked up on this, liked it, and wondered if it was new. To which I responded, why yes, I just made it up.
A little while later, closing down for the day, I realized: It’s the wrong neologism.
The right neologism:
Dichotanomaly
That is to say, an anomaly within the dichotomy. A person, being or situation that simply doesn’t fit into either of the two halves.
Otherwise known as all those grey bits when you try to say something as black and white.
The nice thing about being a dichotanomaly: I suspect all of us are, one time or another, depending on the dichotomy.
Now that I’ve written this post, I don’t know that I ever plan to use this nonce neologism again. But hey, it is Friday, right?
