whatifery
n.— «I am glad that my hon. Friend has admitted what I believe was going through many of our minds—that we are baffled by the Minister’s explanation of what the clause is trying to do. I am certainly baffled. I suppose that the opposite of “whatifery’” is anecdotalism. I shall therefore go for anecdotalism, because at least that provides me with a firm example.» —“Planning and Compulsory Purchase (Re-committed) Bill” by Andrew Turner House of Commons Standing Committee A (United Kingdom) Oct. 14, 2003. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Monica in Burlington, Vermont, says a friend recently told her that her day became kerfunkulated, and Monica knew what she meant without even asking. Why do we successfully infer the meaning of such words? Placeholder words such as thingamajiggy...
“What has a head like a cat, feet like a cat, a tail like a cat, but isn’t a cat?” Answer: a kitten! A 1948 children’s joke book has lots of these to share with kids. Plus: an easy explanation for the difference between...