Word of the Day: slitheroo

slitheroo (v)

To slowly slide with a gliding motion.

"Don't slitheroo thet way, Harve. Short's the trick, because no sea's ever dead still...."
--Rudyard Kipling, Captains Courageous

I didn't know there was a word for it, but now I know that I slitheroo every morning as I descend to the platform at the Journal Square PATH station, sliding and gliding (and squeezing) past the commuters who insist on standing still on the escalator. I have no patience for riding escalators without also walking down or up the steps, even when I don't have a train to catch. Passive ascending and descending? That's for elevators.

"Slitheroo" makes me think of snakes, too. I knew a guy in college who kept a snake in a bag in his dorm-room closet. At least he said he did. I never had a desire to see it, and he never offered to show it to me. Now I wonder if he was putting me on....

(via Wordnik)