Drivers on the merge
Last time, the challenge was to come up with a word for “people who don’t stop at yield signs when driving,” and I observed that Massachusetts drivers are thought to be especially guilty of this practice. So let’s get something out of the way right away: The epithet Massholes already exists for such drivers and ones who engage in similar behavior, as Darnelle Knowlton, of Framingham, and Edith Maxwell, of Amesbury, pointed out. Edith also admitted, “That’s not very innovative” and proposed “selfiots for these self-centered idiots” instead. Brian Power, of Barrington, R.I. — a town that is not, please note, in Massachusetts — offered Massholery.
Wilma Kassakian took a stance that was both charitable and non-Massachusetts-specific, writing: “As a teenager in Ohio, I once dated a boy who routinely zoomed through traffic yield signs to enter the turnpike. Turns out he misunderstood the word yield. He lived on a farm where yield means the ‘take’ in terms of a crop. So he was taking the right of way.”
Jack Tuttle, of Hyde Park, has some relevant expertise. He reported: “One of my former life skills was as a certified defensive driving instructor. People who do not stop at yield signs may be doing so because people are not supposed to stop at yield signs — unless they have no other choice. But someone who refuses to observe the rules of the road concerning yielding, is, of course, an unyieldy person / being unyieldy.”
Barbara Leventhal, of Raynham, dubbed the offenders unyieldies. And Rick Mattila, of Hull, commented: “It is easy to think of words like unyieldy for those annoying drivers who don’t yield, but what’s worse are those drivers who once entering the line of traffic slow down. I guess they think they made it so they can relax.”
Michael McCarron, of West Newbury, suggested: “Given the offenders’ seamless assumption of privilege, maybe an accurate term would be autoentitled.
But back to the idea of driving defensively. Dan Shusman, of Sudbury, listed that as the fifth of five reasons drivers might fail to yield, the others being that “they have a true emergency, they are inconsiderate, they are oblivious, or they are idiots.” He continued: “I’ll forgive anyone with a true emergency. The next three reasons can be summed up in a new word, incobliviot. The fifth reason is explained by usage: ‘Yes, officer, I blew through that yield sign because I thought the incobliviot behind me would end up in my trunk if I slowed down or stopped.’”
Our Commonwealth has a lot of nicknames besides the most common one, the Bay State: the Old Colony State, the Puritan State, the Baked Bean State, the Codfish State, and more. Anil Adyanthaya, of Newton Upper Falls, proposed: “Because we are sometimes known as the Pilgrim State, how about calling this failing-to-yield maneuver a Pilgrimerge?”
Tom Price, of Nahant, bless him, wanted to fulfill the challenge’s request precisely, right down to the part of speech, and he wrote: “If the new word is to name the person and not be a term to refer to the situation (such as merge aversion), then I propose mergemoron.”
John Lane, of East Falmouth, also had a name for the offenders, writing: “As a Massachusetts driver all my life, I’ve dealt with this behavior for a long time. I call them merjerks.”
Unyieldy, adjective and noun, clearly deserves a readers’ choice award, inasmuch as it is apt and clever and was submitted by more people than any other coinage. Good going, folks! But I’m awarding bragging rights to John Lane’s merjerks. It pinpoints the kind of jerkiness in question, and — this is what tips the balance in its favor — I can easily imagine an exasperated driver muttering it under their breath — or shouting it at the oblivious exasperator. You get bragging rights this time, John, and congratulations!
Now Lynn Rosenbaum, of Arlington, writes: “When many bad or annoying things are happening in my life all at once, I say ‘When it rains, it pours’ — it’s never just one bad thing. I am in search of a comparable expression to use when many good or fortuitous things are happening at once. There is ‘Good things come in threes’ — but that’s too specific. Any ideas?”
Send your suggestions for such a word to me at Barbara.Wallraff@globe.com by noon on Friday, March 1, and kindly tell me where you live. Responses may be edited.
And please keep in mind that meanings in search of words are always welcome.