words, words, words

This morning I made up a new word.
Attempting to describe why our dog might last night have suddenly acquired a terrible limp (“It’s very sore ‘rita”, she said – in dogspeak) only to find it had magically disappeared this morning at the park when she met her ‘friends’, and coinciding suspiciously with the departure of one of her very favourite people, I came up with “psychosemantic”.
“What is that?” asks Justine.
“She’s manufacturing an ailment as a projection of her unhappiness about Josh going”, says I (wearing dog psychologist hat). “You know, psychosemantic?”
“So she’s obsessed with the meaning of things?” says Justine. “Really? That’s unusual for a dog.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I just don’t think you mean psychosemantic,” says Justine.
Harumphh.
Psychosemantic. Psychosomatic. Whatever. I think we all know what I meant.