In Which I Eat a Fairly Large Word

Product quality bulletin #000001:

It appears that the Buce blog item that has generated the most mail is the one that uses the word “fissiparous” (link). My friend Mary says they even discussed it at Thanksgiving dinner.

I assume I thought it was a comic word like “shambolic” or “transmogrify.” I guess I thought it meant something like “fizzy.” Oops. All this attention drove me back to the dictionary where I find (a) it’s a perfectly respectable word; and (b) I had it wrong:

1. Reproducing by biological fission.
2. Tending to break up into parts or break away from a main body; factious.

Turns out I can’t even get the pronunciation right. I had assumed “fis SIP a rous.” But it appears to be “fis si PAR ous.”

Hm. In retrospect, the Antiochians of the 50s probably were fissiparous, but that wan't quite what I had in mind. In any event, they were probably more interested in fusion, heh heh. Perhaps what I had in mind was:

Fiz ZIP a rous.

That is all, continue as you were.