Notes and Asides.(word creation and grammar rules)(Brief Article)(Column)

Dear Mr. Buckley: My sister attends Bates College in Maine, and shared with me a delicious new word. It's a hybrid, actually, used to describe many of the students there who choose a ragged, progressive identity despite their genteel prosperity. It's a look achieved through managed self-denial of grooming and shoe repair, a sort of active neglect.

The word is Trustafarian, a combination of trust, as in trust fund, and Rastafarian, as in the rather frazzled-looking Jamaican sect.

I thought you might get a kick out of it.

Your faithful follower,

Robert P. O'Connell

Quincy, Mass.

Dear Mr. O'Connell: Fun, but doubt it will go anywhere.