words which will make me leave the party.

My original list, as of 2005:

• Onramping
• Socialize the Idea
• Deep-diving
• Incentivize
• “You can attend the party for free, but your wife has to pay $20.”
• The Next Level
• Shock and Awe
• Exegesis
• Utilize
• Postmodernism

Exegesis is an interesting case. I was in St. Louis for a wedding, visiting some high school friends when one of them busted out (apropos of what?):

“Does anyone know what exegesis means?”

Now, I hadn’t seen this person in 10 years. I rarely go to parties. Surely, they could not be baiting me like this. And they were not. They had a friend who had started up a document scanning company called Exegy (or something similar) and wondered if anyone in the room knew what it meant.

So, I didn’t leave that party, so apparently it’s not really a word that will make me leave the party. But all the rest of them are.