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Make Your Point > Archived Issues > GOLDBERGIAN

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pronounce GOLDBERGIAN:

gold BURG ee un
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connect this word to others:

I bet you can find a use for the delightful word Goldbergian, meaning "intricate in a needlessly complex way, like a machine sketched by the cartoonist Rube Goldberg."

While we're exploring Goldbergian, let's recall two other incredibly specific synonyms of intricate:

1. S____ian means "intricate in a way that reminds you of illustrations from a beloved children's author that feature complex contraptions and objects in gravity-defying stacks."

2. By___tine means "intricate in a way that reminds you of staggeringly complex buildings like the Hagia Sophia, built back when Istanbul was Constantinople."

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)

definition:

Rube Goldberg (1883-1970) was a popular cartoonist who poked fun at American culture for its obsession with technology.

He drew hilarious stuff, like this:

(Source)

And this:

(Source)

Although his drawings were super funny, they also implied a serious critique: that technology is complicating our lives when it ought to be simplifying it (Smithsonian).

By 1928, people were applying Goldberg's name to all kinds of real-life machines, processes, or schemes with far too many moving parts.

So, if you call something Goldbergian, you mean it's designed to do something simple in an unnecessarily complicated way.

Or, more generally, you might mean it's hilariously, needlessly overcomplicated.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Adjective, the proper kind: "It's a Goldbergian scheme."

Other forms: 

Instead of "Goldbergian," some writers use the cartoonist's full name as an adjective, as in "It's a Rube Goldberg scheme."

You can also use his name as a verb, although that's rare. One morning, when I looked over at where my husband had placed a coffee filter inside a funnel on top of a strainer on top of a measuring cup, he laughed and said, "Yeah, I'm over here Rube Golberging a solution."

how to use it:

"Goldbergian" is a very rare word. Despite Goldberg's popularity, not everyone is familiar with his cartoons, and he's not the first Goldberg that everyone thinks of. In fact, if you're talking to a philosopher or a linguist, "Goldbergian" will have a completely different meaning.

I suggest using "Goldbergian" carefully, then, giving enough context so that your listener understands what you mean.

You might talk rather literally about people building Goldbergian machines and contraptions. That's actually a popular activity for kids interested in engineering.

Or you might talk more figuratively about Goldbergian designs, machines, devices, processes, systems, institutions, scheming, plots, logic, etc.

examples:

"My favorite example of a successful Rube Goldberg machine to date is one that was designed to suck the egg out of the shell using a large syringe."
— Dustyn Roberts, Making Things Move: DIY Mechanisms for Inventors, Hobbyists, and Artists, 2010

"Is the useless ridiculous overcomplicated Goldbergian academic publishing machine monstrous, or is it the mechanism used to cage the monsters within all of us?" 
— Eileen Honan, Writing with Deleuze in the Academy, 2018

has this page helped you understand "Goldbergian"?

   

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.


study it:

Explain the meaning of "Goldbergian" without saying "elaborate" or "convoluted."

try it out:

In the movie Austin Powers, Dr. Evil plans to kill Austin with this Goldbergian plan: very slowly lowering him into a pool of sharks with laser beams on their heads. It doesn't go as planned.

With that in mind as an example, talk about another plot, real or fictional, that you find amusingly Goldbergian.




before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game for this month is the Game of Venery! 

Longtime readers may recognize this game from 2019, when we played with terms from James Lipton's book An Exaltation of Larks. This time, we’ll play with terms from Daniel E. Meyers's online Collective Noun Catalog.

To play, check out the two templates below, and have fun filling them in and sharing your inventions with your family. You can be as lofty, silly, or bawdy as you like. To see the way the terms actually appear in Meyers’s catalog, scroll to the bottom of the issue.

Try these today:

1. an ostentation of _____

2. a/an _____ of tourists

review this word:

1. Opposites of GOLDBERGIAN include

A. LAX, SLOPPY, and SLAPDASH.
B. DULL, TRITE, and WELL-WORN.
C. SIMPLE, USEFUL, and ELEGANT.

2. The Chinese TikToker @humg….0 creates Goldbergian inventions, such as _____.

A. goldfish strollers and dog umbrellas
B. the yodeling meter, which measures the precise pitch of a yodeler's yodels
C. a pair of high-heeled shoes that transform into flats using an enormous air tank, a tangle of hoses, and a switch




Answers to the review questions:
1. C
2. C

Answers to the game questions:

Your invented terms of venery can be anything you like!

Here are the ones from the catalog:
1. an ostentation of peacocks
2. an agape of tourists

And here are mine:
1. an ostentation of influencers
2. a Birkenstock of tourists


a final word:


I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.


From my blog:
On vocabulary...
      36 ways to study words.
      Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
      How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
      How to improve any sentence.
      How to motivate our kids to write.
      How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
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A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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