Neologism

On Thursday, Glenn Greenwald posted a commentary from University of Colorado law professor Paul Campos as part of a back-and-forth with rightwing blogger and law professor Glenn Reynolds. It began when Reynolds, proprietor of the Instapundit blog, advocated the U.S. government-sponsored assasinations of Iranian nuclear scientists.

In the course of their open exchange on this topic, Reynolds used a made up expression, "beclowned," to refer to Prof. Campos.

In response, Campos wrote the following which appeared on Greenwald's blog:

One could linger over such symptomatic features as the pompous neologism ("beclowned") deployed as a substitute for argument; the assumption that scholarly expertise can be acquired by a ten-minute Google search; the subsequent citation of "authorities" of whose existence the author was unaware ten minutes earlier; or the inevitable if rather surreal violation of Godwin's Law (we bombed the Nazis so what's wrong with assassinating Iranian civilians?).

Neologism

Main Entry: ne·ol·o·gism
Pronunciation: nE-'ä-l&-"ji-z&m
Function: noun
Etymology: French néologisme, from ne- + log- + -isme -ism
1 : a new word, usage, or expression
2 : a meaningless word coined by a psychotic

Yeah, I'd say that just about sums it up.

Point, Campos!