While reading an interesting discussion thread at Ruy Teixeira’s Donkey Rising, I came across a commenter who used the word “vaselated” in reference to the voting record of a candidate. I believe that this is the best new word I’ve seen all month.
I mean, OK, it’s pretty clear that the individual meant to say “vaccilated”: drifted back and forth between different positions, never strongly committing themselves to a point of view. I’m not entirely sure that this is really a legitimate criticism of a politician — it’s either vaccilate or become an ideologue, after all, and out experience with the latter breed recently has made me question their value. But I’m certainly willing to entertain the argument.
It’s the conflation with “vaseline”, though, that really does it for me. Not just drifting back and forth, but squirming, slipping from viewpoint to viewpoint, petroleum-jelly-coated body twisting and turning. Any attempts to pin the individual down would just slide right off!
I’m not saying that this is true for the pol in question; really, I don’t know enough about his voting record to say. But it’s just an evocative non-word that I had to point it out.