The Rice University Neologisms Database

in College BowlTM and related competitions, the act of interrupting the moderator with an incorrect answer, thus earning a five-point score deduction Presumed reason for coinage The negfive is very important in quiz bowl, and almost always comes up in any discussion of team or individual performance or of how a match was won or lost. A succinct word for the act was necessary to facilitate these discussions. The neg morpheme helps convey the sense of error and guilt associated with a negfive. Quiz bowl players and fans are notoriously 'geeky' and prone to developing highly technical jargon; many of them are already accustomed to using such jargon in their academic fields.