The potentially discombobulating swirl of New York City’s Times Square Leo Patrizi/Getty Images
Leo Patrizi/Getty Images
Feeling a little confused, concerned, off-kilter, out of sorts? Sounds like you’re discombobulated.
It’s a fitting word for an unsettling feeling. It sounds formal, maybe even fancy. But it’s actually the creation of some good old-fashioned American jokesters.
“The word is very much an American invention,” says Joshua Blackburn, the U.K.-based author of The Language-Lover’s Lexipedia. “And it seems
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