Pollyism

Definition

HoiPolly

n. a group of common people that can make or break Polly's predictions. They are rarely seen with Pollypro types, prefer beer over wine, and discover who won an election via the morning paper rather than staying up late and watching the returns.

Monopolly

n. the state of one candidate completely dominating the field

Napolly

n. Polly’s break, often spent in Italy, taken between major elections

Oligopolly

n. the state where a select few surveys dominate the PollyVote

PennPolly

n. one who writes Polly at the University of Penn

Polly

n. 1: an extremely talented parrot known for her political savvy and forecasting talents; 2: short for PollyVote i.e. “where’s the polly at today?”

Polly

v. Pollies; to look up the PollyVote i.e. “George pollies every morning before breakfast.”

Pollyalcohol

n. Polly’s beverage of choice, particularly after a long night of forecasting or, on occasion, before starting to forecast

Pollyamorous

adj. being in love with more than one candidate i.e. “the pollyamorous results show an even split between the candidates”

Pollyana

n. 1. when a political candidate gets a big gift i.e. “The release of that economics report today was a pollyana for John”; 2. a major political fundraiser i.e. “That $1,000/plate pollyana really helped George’s war chest”; 3. one who is overly generous to a candidate

Pollyandrite

n. a female politician who is the darling of male voters

Pollyblot

n. a politician’s convenient selective memory loss

Pollyblot

v. pollyblotted; pollyblotting; to intentionally forget an inconvenient political fact or incident. “I must remember to pollyblot this later.”

PollyByGolly

interjection: the realization that you have capitulated completely to the wisdom of Polly's forecasting system. ([with Polly's thanks to Shelby McIntyre for this definition]

Pollycentric

adj. to have more than one political center

Pollycrastination

n. the ability to avoid doing a number of things, all at the same time

Pollyemic

n. an aggressive attack on Polly’s forecasting model or honor

Pollyerr

n. the error in the PollyVote

Pollyester

n. 1. the ability of a politician to forecast what will happen tomorrow, next month and next year and to explain afterwards why it did not happen yesterday, yestermonth or yesteryear (with apologies to Winston Churchill); 2. a fake forecast that, while totally useless, can be washed

Pollygamy

n. the state of not being married to one forecasting method

Pollygloat

v. pollygloated; pollygloating; unsubtly gleeful behavior on radio or television of a politician whose opponent has been pollyspotted or caught in a pollywollydoodle

Pollyglot

n. a mixture of forecasting terminology

Pollygon

n. the end of the election, Polly has left the building

Pollygram

n. an inefficient way to contact Polly – try email instead>

Pollygraph

n. 1. any graph created by Polly; 2. a device for finding the true forecast

Pollymorphous

adj. the quality of having political views that change with circumstances

Pollymur

n. short for PollyMurmur – a political rumor

Pollymurmur

n. a political rumor

PollyNation

n. 1. an essay on the national forecast; 2. the act of making little Pollys

Pollynician

n. one who lends Polly technical assistance.

Pollynitions

n. Polly’s terms, defined

Pollynizing

v. the act of reducing forecasting error by calculating the PollyVote

Pollynose

Best (a Pollysci usually follows the realization of this awful Pollypun)

Pollyonesse

n. a political report that is written in Greek as far as Polly is concerned

Pollypeptide

n. a state of high energy for Polly, usually following a full moon

Pollyphemus

n. blinded by one survey

Pollyphonic

adj. having the ring of truth, but not the substance

Pollypolster

n. a polling agency that is included in the PollyVote

Pollypro

n. a forecasting or Polly expert

Pollypropylene

n. the point at which Polly gave up her amateur status to get paid for forecasting

Pollypun

n. every conceivable play on the roots “polly” “poly” and “poli”

Pollyroid

n. 1. an instant snapshot of the current political race; 2. a painful condition Polly gets if she sits on her perch too long

Pollyssary

n. a list of Pollynitions.

Pollysci

n. the sound uttered when one is exasperated by the whole political process or one of these Pollypuns

Pollysh

v. to smooth out forecasting error

Pollyspot

v. pollyspotted; pollyspotting; to observe a politician indulging in behavior that is inconsistent with his or her espoused beliefs

Pollytesse

n. polite agreement with Polly’s methodology and results

Pollytics

n. forecasting aberrations

Pollyunsaturated

n. time to clean Polly’s cage, usually after a night of too much Pollyalcohol and RollyPolly

Pollyvoid

n. a place where out-of-office politicians go

PollyVote

n. a combined average that takes the mean of the average of the two-party vote in the surveys and the mean of the two-party vote forecast obtained with the quantitative models. See Armstrong (2001).

Pollywollydoodle

n. an unspecified sexual impropriety committed by a politician

Pollywood

n. exotic film that visualises politicians' wild fantasies, including romance and re-election

RollyPolly

n. 1. Polly’s state after too much Pollyalcohol; 2. a Polly that needs to exercise more, usually after a long Napolly but before a Pollypeptide