Bronwen Williams

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Math teacher humor - No longer an oxymoron! Remember the good old Pythagorean theorem from math class? I have collected 101 different spellings of the word "Pythagorean" from real math students' papers. I would like creative email definitions (think Dictionary game) for these new words and will add them to this page. Help me out please, I know my family won't be able to resist this one.

Mythagaris - Mithter Pythagaris' daughter. Pete's reputed evil twin whom no one has actually seen. (When I was in geometry class he was referred to universally as "Pete".) (Dyke)

Paenthagorean - n., hymn of praise honoring the speakers of those Asiatic languages that do not distinguish g from k. (Mike)

Pagarem - n. a unit of dream, equivalent to one paragraph of prose. (Mike)

Palaygerean

Pamugrean
1) all things originating with Pam or her family.
(Marc)
2) of, or relating to, the commercial cooking spray product. (Marc)
3) adj. the scrungy state of a pan which has been repeatedly sprayed with cooking spray without being thoroughly washed in between (believed to arise from the mistaken belief that one cannot use detergent on Teflon). (Katie)

Paragathum - that portion of text in a romance novel that is substituted for a climax scene, to render the book acceptable for younger audiences. (Marc)

Paragathy - the practice of replacing a romance novel climax scene with a paragathum (less interesting text), to render the book acceptable for younger audiences. (Marc)

Patangaream

Pathagareum - the section of every foreign city containing the fabled "route to the train station." (Dyke)

Pathagariam

Pathagarian - a resident or expatriate of Pathagaria, a utopian nation originally colonized by medical professionals." (Shawn)

Pathagarien

Pathageram

Pathagern - a disease you have to make sure you don't catch from someone because, in spite of all, it could kill you. (Dyke)

Pathagery - dishonest copying and use of another's directions. (Katie)

Pathagmeun

Pathagofream - Confederate slang term for the Underground Railroad during the
1850's.
(Derek)

Pathagorean - Florida voting judge circa 2000. (Jeff)

Pathagoreon

Pathagoreum - n. the area of convocation, spacious and open to the sky, of all the lanes, byways, and unpaved trails in a given region. Topologically identical with the region itself after removal of the named roads. Best known as the referent of the original proverb (since corrupted): "All paths lead to roam." (Mike)

Pathagorin

Pathagorium - n. a room reserved for devotions honoring Ancestral Pat. Communicant with the kitchen, it holds relicts, attested accounts of numinous and oracular deeds, and evidence of miracles. It is furnished with a comfortable chair, an altar for tobacco offering, and a representation of the Never Empty Bottle. (Mike)

Pathagorun - the usual jogging route of buff Cosa Nostra members. (Dyke)

Pathagourus - a swift but doomed dinosaur species which was noted for always staying between the lines. Pathagourus was gradually brought to extinction by Policaurus, which would rest just off the edge of the path and wait. Also see Crulleropods. (Marc)

Pathagreon - found in most university towns where math-oriented films are shown (The Maltese Fraction, etc.). (Dyke)

Pathagreum

Pathagrian

Pathagrim - adj., so bleak or forbidding as to impair health. (Mike)

Pathagrium

Patheargram

Pathegerian - elderly person in the stage of life in which one regrets having not chosen the other fork in the road. (Katie)

Pathegiryan - n., a folk dance of the Ozark and Southern Appalachian mountains, residuum of the spectacular pre-medieval patergyran. As performed in boots and overalls rather than peacock-feathered slippers, the flamboyant Prime-Mover-evoking rotations are thrown from the heel rather than the toe. (Mike)

Pathegorean
1) pertaining to the reign of King Pathagore the 3rd in England, between 743 and 768 AD. (Fred)
2) a sensibility or style redolent of the Pathagoreanne era. (Fred)
3) domestic affairs characterized by partially cooked sides of meat, poorly heated or ventilated great-rooms, the persistent presence of half-wild dogs, and a general lack of soap, silverware or civil rights. (Fred)

Patheogeorm - what you get when you mix religion and math. (Derek)

Patheram - the Pythagorean theorem's shortest nickname. (Dyke)

Pathgorean

Pathgrethic - adj., arousing pity or mild scorn by inadequately shocking an audience. Offensive cursing on stage, stereotypical dirty jokes at parties, closeups of gore in movies, are often pathgrethic. (Mike)

Pathnagarewn
1) adj., resembling a rectilinear lane in Wales, i.e. clearly mythical by incorporation of incommensurable attributes.
(Mike)
2) adj., covered, netted, or confused by many little self-intersecting lines, channels, or possibilities, as by thrown handfuls of flexible straw.
(Mike)

Pathogomy - The clinical term for marrying someone who reminds you of your horrible parents. Most of us deal with this, but no one likes to discuss it. (Marc)

Pathreoum

Pathyum - perverse fascination with delicious tastes. (Katie)

Patragrum - an alcoholic liquid made from fermenting and distilling kerchiefs collected at the end of a hot day. Fortunately the word is too difficult for an intoxicated person to pronounce, and the rest of us have better sense. (Marc)

Pehogrom - the system program associated with newer versions of Microsoft products which requires you to upgrade your computer in order to run it. (Derek)

Perthagium - Western Australia's death-tax collecting headquarters. (Dyke)

Petageum - Athenean orgy hall used by preteens to practice in. (Dyke)

Petagriam

Pethagariom - an account of the lives of saintly domesticated animals. (Shawn)

Phagaerm

Phygaream - a hand tool for removing the seeds from figs. An attempt to patent the device was ignored because patent office employees accidentally destroyed the paperwork during a raucous fig-throwing bout that broke out just prior to testing the device. No one was willing to explain to the applicant what actually happened. On such events does history turn. (Marc)

Phythageorean

Phythagomy - extreme difficulty with physics. (Katie)

Phythagorem - a long, sharp thorn, or a plant bearing such thorns. (Shawn)

Polagium - the shed where Cambridge University undergrads keep their personal nautical propulsive gear. (Dyke)

Polyothomic - referring to the numerous descendants (living and deceased) of Thomas
Mann.
(Dyke)

Pothagery - incorrigible, conspicuous display of fuss (rarely fatal). (Katie)

Pothagleon - the bundle of nerves one finds themselves after drinking Jolt Cola and eating chocolate bars in an all night cram for a geometry test. (Bob)

Pothagorean - what Al was smoking when he invented the Internet. (Derek)

Pothagreom

Pothagreon

Pothagrian

Pothagrium - a thick soup or stew favored by hags, ogres, and other fairytale villains, usually made from barley, vegetables, and small animals or children when available. The survivors of the Three Little Pigs incident are said to have used a similar recipe when boiling their lupine nemesis. (Shawn)

Pothagurian

Pothogorin - the easily-infected wounds of torreadors and Pamplona bull runners. (Dyke)

Prothageran - whereas promethean means "on top", prothageran means "on the bottom." (Dyke)

Prothagrium
1) an artificial plant.
(Bill)
2) the first step leading into a school bus; your last chance to turn and run. (Marc)

Pthagorean - pertaining to Egypt's rival god-geometer of the same era. (Dyke)

Pyagorean - an undercooked kidney pie. (Shawn)

Pyrogean - adj. tending to start fires. (Katie)

Pytagulum - singular; Those annoying nylon fasteners from which new clothing labels
dangle.
(Marc)

Pythagarean - surgical procedure for removing a fetus from a pregnant snake. (Katie)

Pythagarian - any of a class of constricting snakes found in Hungary. (Derek)

Pythagerans

Pythagerean

Pythagering - the bold but ultimately futile act of swaggering down an urban, urine-stained street. (Dyke)

Pythageroen - a facility for the care and entertainment of aged snakes. (Shawn)

Pythagogrin - an expression common on one immobilized before a sinuous, looming, implacable fate. It is seldom humiliating, but only because it is difficult to remember - let alone admit - after survival, if any. (Mike)

Pythagonorean - characteristic of or resembling a social disease of the constricting
serpents.
(Mike)

Pythagora - a central square in which Greek noblemen could (and did) relieve themselves willy-nilly, a custom later perfected by the French. (Dyke)

Pythagoran

Pythagoream

Pythagorem

Pythagoren - the first man who figured out how to count at "bridge." (Dyke)

Pythagoreon

Pythagoreum

Pythagorian - early musical chant form developed by helmet wearing African explorers. (Katie)

Pythagorim

Pythagoris - n., the morphologically central organ of motivation in the immature constricting serpent, replaced in the mature individual by the pythagfreudeggis. (Mike)

Pythagorium

Pythagorum

Pythagory - the pointed yet veiled stories your grandparents tell. e.g. "Foolish little mice are caught by wise cats if the mice don't think before they speak." (Marc)

Pythagourom

Pythagous - of, related to, resembling, or covered in, pithage.(pithage - 1970's Americanism of pith. This form can be applied to most singular nouns and adjectives x, e.g x-age). (Marc)

Pythagraum

Pythagream

Pythagrean

Pythagreom - the oddly-shaped room in the Naval Observatory, Greenwich, England, dedicated to "The Great Triangulator." (Dyke)

Pythagrium - a tall cylindrical structure in which the year's crop of pith is stored while the farmer tries to figure out what it's good for. (Shawn)

Pythalorgan - a hormone secreting gland that enables a large snake to advise an elephant's child. (Katie)

Pythgenom - the primal genome from which all life descends. (Marc)

Pythogoreom - the part of the house the snake lives in. (Katie)

Thigram
1) the final punctuation mark he put at the very end of his theorem.
(Dyke)
2) n., a wishbone, or Y, shaped unit of divination, consulted by the barbarians of the North. The position of the two branches relative to the central stem foretells one's imminent luck. The custom is believed to have arisen from a "slip" pronunciation of trigram, reinforced by a wholesale and regrettable dispensation with the pursuit of wisdom.
(Mike)