Words cannot express…
PaddyC comments:
I found a question that can’t be googled recently. You know that situation when you’re walking down the street, and meet an on-coming pedestrian, and both of you choose the same side to pass the other, then both revise your choice, and again, and you end up dancing on the street with a stranger for a moment? There’s a word for that, but I can’t find it, and Google can’t help… so it’s not invincible yet!!
I’ve not come with a word for you, but The Atlantic has an entertaining column that deals in this particular problem.
Link: Word Fugitives (subs required)
There is also Douglas Adams and John Lloyd’s Meaning of Liff, inspired by “common experiences, feelings, situations and even objects which we all know and recognize, but for which no words exist”.
It’s called a squirly-whirl (but I’m not 100% sure on the spelling).
Comment by Eavan | May 29, 2007 at 9:55 amMy girlfriend regularly comes up with champion neologisms in these circs. Don’t know a word for this situation, but if you find the same problem when trying to get past the person walking in front of you, you may be behind a “meanderthal”.
Comment by copernicus | May 29, 2007 at 11:10 pmin michel gondry’s wonderful film “the science of sleep”, the character Stéphane describes it as:
“P. S. R. Parallel Synchronized Randomness. An interesting brain rarity and our subject for today. Two people walk in opposite directions at the same time and then they make the same decision at the same time. Then they correct it, and then they correct it, and then they correct it, and then they correct it, and then they correct it. Basically, in a mathematical world these two little guys will stay looped for the end of time. The brain is the most complex thing in the universe and it’s right behind the nose.”
i couldn’t agree more
Comment by dave scanlon | May 30, 2007 at 9:15 am