automabyss

automabyss

aw’-to-muh-bis’

noun

that time and place when and where, respectively, one realizes the futility of dealing with a computerized telephone attendant which answered and irreconcilably routed his call.

word origin and history for automabyss
october 19, 2017

automaton + abyss

automaton
noun
1610s, from latin automaton (suetonius), from greek automaton, neuter of automatos “self-acting,” from autos “self” + matos “thinking, animated, willing,” from pie *mn-to-, from root *men- “to think.”

abyss
noun

late 14c., earlier abime (c.1300, from a form in old french), from late latin abyssus “bottomless pit,” from greek abyssos (limne) “bottomless (pool),” from a- “without” + byssos “bottom,” possibly related to bathos “depth.”
after sheila, the kindly, new department manager at the home depot in rome, georgia, helped me get a free replacement commode, i called the home depot’s toll-free telephone number to provide my positive feedback, but its answering machine was unable to route my call to either starr, the kindly, helpful human i had spoken to yesterday at a different toll-free telephone number at the home depot, instead casting me into the automabyss, when i was unable to guess what the answering machine’s programmer had contrived and where my next keypad choice would take me during the six minutes of my life that i had lost, thanks to the power of the home depot.