The Rice University Neologisms Database

ridiculousness as a result of intoxication; used to describe ridiculous acts performed while drunk. There is legitimate impetus for users to develop a term to describe the outlandish behaviors of an inebriated person. It is interesting to note that the innovators of this term felt that the character of drunken behavior was unique enough to warrant an innovative form (i.e. they felt that such behavior was not adequately characterized by the term ridiculous). The usefulness of this term, as well as its intrinsic ties to alcohol and the alcohol culture, affords it a great degree of covert prestige, such that the term has a good chance of entering mainstream usage. It is interesting to note that, unlike many other blends, the parent words share only a consonant sound similarity (the voiced stop ‘d’). Further, the ‘r’ deletion is not characterized by any of the word formation rules encountered in the course material, and was likely done so that the meaning and connection with ridiculous was conveyed more clearly (the word redrunkulous might be construed to mean a condition of continuous inebriation, where the preservation of the ‘r’ removes the term from its intended meaning).