noun associative word bubbles

You may have seen me use this in the most previous post: a small array of related nous. The idea is that the hearer averages the meaning of all the nouns and gets a clearer idea of what I'm trying to say. We us this in everyday talk: "go get the metal-club-wrench-thingie". I bet we can also use this in academia to more accurately pinpoint a certain concept, especially if it is a concept that is relatively novel.

Note the title of this entry.