Akademik

braggables

(BRAG.uh.bul)

The things, actions, or results about which a person can brag.

— braggable adj.

Example Citation:

Using the company intranet and Lotus Notes, RSC built a place where staff can maintain their own career plan. Essentially, they're using some innovative but low-cost database technology to track resumes online. Staff log on to update their skills inventory and experience (like a traditional resume), but there are also sections for individual mission statements, career plans, educational goals and personal wins or "braggables."

— Brad Bushelt, "Cultivating Careers," CMA Management, December 1, 2001

Earliest Citation:

My career advice to employees is to assume you are going to be fired six months from now. The first thing the outplacement counselor will ask you to do is put together your résumé or curriculum vitae. How will it look? And are you working on something today that will be one of your "braggables" at the end of the year or at the end of 1997, or at the end of 1998?

— Tom Peters, "Conversations With," Quality Digest Magazine, November 1996

Here's the earliest citation for the adjective:

"I have to brag about these kids because they are braggable," [Banning High football coach Chris] Ferragamo said. "They are the toughest, smartest, the best I've had. They understand the strategy behind every play."

— Steve Hudson, "Banning does a bang-up job on Kennedy," Los Angeles Times, October 11, 1986

Notes:

For a while I thought braggables was a rare discovery: an English noun that exists only in the plural form (alms is another). Alas, I managed to find a couple of examples of the singular noun "braggable" (although it did take me a while, so it's definitely a rare beast). Today's word is an invention of management guru Tom Peters, who appears as either the source or the reference ("as Tom Peters once said") for most of the citations I found. Add it to his long list of braggables.

Here's a poser for you: What would be the equivalent word for a person's not-so-positive things, actions, or results? The word should be of the form verb + -ables.

I received many replies, all of them creative and fun. I had three favorites:

regrettables

unmentionables

deniables

Of the rest, here are the ones that fit the verb+-ables form (with one exception), in alphabetical order:

blameables

blushables

concealables

confessables

deplorables

detractables

dingables