quondamness

A thesaurus full of imaginary yet important sounding words that shoddy authors use in order to find strange obscure or even imaginary words to use in their stories, in the hopes of sounding more intelligent than they will ever be.
I could use the word "shiny" but I will consult my quondamness to find a harder word to make me look smart!
by Mal1bu May 14, 2008
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Quondam

(1) As a pronominal, former; one-time; having been formerly.
(2) As a pronominal, of an earlier time.

Quondam is pronounced kwon-duhm or kwon-dam. Quondam is an adjective, quondamship is a noun and quondamly is an adverb; the noun quondam is now archaic but can be used in the sense of “one’s ex” and if one is prolific in the generation of quondamship, the noun plural is quondams. As a re-purposed literary word, it has been adapted to the social media age with helpful, non-standard forms coined:

Quondam: One's ex-partner.

Quondaming: The act of dumping a partner.

Quondamed: The act of being so dumped.

Quaondamer: One who dumps a partner (in the form “serial quondamer” applied to those who frequently dump).

Quondamee: One who has been quonadmed by a quandamer (in the form “serial quondamee”, applied to those frequently dumped).

Quondamish: An act which can be interpreted as being dumped but requires confirmation.

Quondamesque: Behavior which suggests having been dumped.

Quondamism: The study of dumped ex-partners (a branch of behaviorism).

Quondamists: A practitioner of quondamism (employed often by internet gossip sites) who can distinguish between genuine quondamees and those exhibiting quondam-like characteristics. The experts have developed predictive models which they apply to work out who is next to be quondamed.
Lindsay Lohan's (b 1986) best known quondam is Samantha Ronson (b 1977).
by Unattached nihilist April 24, 2025
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