burgers_n_eggs

sploot [sploot]

verb:
(slang, of an animal) to lie flat on the stomach with the legs stretched out
noun:
the act or an instance of splooting

            
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There’s the classic sploot (one leg remains beneath the body while the other leg is kicked back), the side sploot (one leg is tucked under the body while the other is kicked out to the side) and a full sploot (the animal has kicked both legs behind the body, exhibiting a full body stretch). (Hannah Docter-Loeb, Who Sploots?, Slate, August 2022)

But even in the chillier climes like Laramie, squirrels will sploot on warmer days. The upside to what Koprowski called heat islands is that cement sidewalks, while also retaining heat, will retain cooler temperatures while in the shade. (Joshua Wood, U W Professor, Who Is World’s Foremost Authority On Squirrels, Says Splooting Is OK, Cowboy State Daily, August 2022)

Snellby Kay said her household refers to the position as "road kill pose," and Brianna Portillo called it the "sploot." (Sophie Lloyd, Cat's Bizarre Sleeping Position Confuses Internet: 'Airplane Mode', Newsweek, July 2023)

I think a senior cat who still gets the zoomies would love her own bean bag chair to sploot in! (Eve Vawter, Scottish Fold Cat’s Beanbag Sploot Is the AMSR Therapy Session We Didn’t Know We Needed, Parade Pets, April 2025)

Origin:

Sploot is part of a growing lexicon of 'DoggoLingo', which uses cute, deliberate misspellings and onomatopoeias like mlem, blep, smol, borf, and heckin to fawn over man’s best friend online - and the many, many pictures and videos we post of them. While the exact origins of sploot are unclear, lexicographer Grant Barrett of the A Way with Words radio show has suggested that the term sploot may riff on the word splat to characterize the splat-like (flat, spread-out) appearance of a sploot pose. This wordplay mirrors other changes made to existing words in DoggoLingo, like the substitution of chonky for chunky. Sploot is especially associated with corgis, a squat breed of dogs with very short legs. The use of sploot, as associated with pets, is evidenced by at least 2012. (Dictionary.com)

divertissement [dih-vur-tis-muhnt; French dee-ver-tees-mahn]

noun:
1 a diversion or entertainment
2 a short ballet or other performance serving as an interlude in a play, opera, etc
3 a program consisting of such performances

Examples:

This season, the Act 2 pas de quatre, a speedy and demanding divertissement for three women and one man, was cut to help streamline the ballet. (Gia Kourlas, At New York City Ballet, Swans Use Grit to Find Glory , The New York Times, February 2020)

But this smart, fast-paced film is not really the zany, lighter-than-air divertissement that the term usually conjures. (Stephen Holden, 'Mistress America,' a Noah Baumbach Comedy on Getting By in a Backbiting World, The New York Times, August 2015)

Big-league ball on the west coast of Florida is a spring sport played by the young for the divertissement of the elderly - a sun-warmed, sleepy exhibition celebrating the juvenescence of the year and the senescence of the fans. (Roger Angell, The Old Folks Behind Home, The New Yorker, March 1962)

"I tell you all this," continued La Fontaine, "because you are preparing a divertissement for Vaux, are you not?" (Alexandre Dumas, The Man in the Iron Mask)

The divertissement, the masquerade, the pageant, the perpetual disguise of humanity that is too soon marred, too soon sad, the theatre, every conceivable artifice of light and shadow, sound and colour, speed and space, was needed to imitate these enchanted dells and forests, these magic lakes and unearthly palaces, where Armida and Gloriana might have disported. (Marjorie Bowen, Nightcap and Plume)

Origin:

Divertissement can mean 'diversion' in both English and French, and it probably won't surprise you to learn that 'divertissement' and 'diversion' can be traced back to the same Latin root : divertere, meaning 'to turn in opposite directions.' Early uses of 'divertissement' in English often occurred in musical contexts, particularly opera and ballet, describing light sequences that entertained but did little to further the story. (The word's Italian cousin, divertimento, is used in a similar way.) Today 'divertissement' can refer to any kind of amusement or pastime, specifically one that provides a welcome distraction from what is burdensome or distressing. (Merriam-Webster)