Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Thank goodness it's abou-tober

There's something about the name October that seems to inspire the urge to play. There's a certain mellifluous quality to the name that we don't have with other months (heck, people can barely pronounce February). And that -tober on the end makes a satisfying particle onto which you can join practically anything, it seems. We've all heard a local radio station advertise its Rocktober lineup (a term also in use by Guitar Center and, it seems, about 300,000 other folks, if Google is to be believed).

Just how productive an ending is -tober, do you suppose? A few minutes of seaching has turned up the following:

Good, if predictable, fun. Are there rules? Interestingly, almost all the examples here have a vowel that's in the same vowel neighborhood as Oct-. (The most common variant -- Rocktober -- is of course a perfect rhyme.) The word to be joined to -tober seems, from these examples, at least, to require a closing consonant. I would initially have guessed that any new prefix would have to be monosyllablic, but A-Rod-tober and Motor-tober appear to be counter-evidence.

What else can we come up with for examples, rules, or idle speculation?

6 comments:

parlance said...

This reminds me of Movember, the international movement to raise money for research into prostate cancer. guys grow and groom moustaches and people donate.

I guess that also is a perfect rhyme. I don't know any other month-related plays on words.

Unknown said...

Don't forget 'tocktober.
http://cuteoverload.com/2009/10/01/lets-give-em-something-to-tock-about/

Bryant said...

It doesn't always have to end in "-tober", though. You've forgotten the growing popularity (ahem) of "Octobeard", when men are encouraged to stop shaving and grow their winter beards (for those that grow seasonal beards, instead of year-round ones, that is).

Unknown said...

Also! An IU specialty - Octubafest! I happen to be working a tuba recital at this very moment! The program even says "Octuba Twenty-Eighth" at the bottom.

Andy Hollandbeck said...

The Bob and Tom radio show used to have "Proctober," (proctology + October), and one of their sidekicks would get a prostate exam live on the air. Alas, Prostate Cancer Awareness month seems to have been moved to September, so now they have "Proctember."

Anonymous said...

spa-tober

820 google hits