Today my classes were reading “The Lady or the Tiger” by Frank Stockton (or Frankenstockton, according to one mispronunciation). One of the words with which the students were unfamiliar was “mitigated.”
One student asked, “Mr. Barner, what does midgetated mean? Does it mean you are being irritated by a midget?” The new word immediately caught on, as several of my louder and more outgoing students are rather short.
So, if you hear this newly minted word around (example: “Napoleon’s relationship with Alexander I of Russia could be construed as an extreme case of midgetation.”), you heard it here first.