Exmissions is such a...

[Anonymous]

I was thinking about this some more, and I had an "aha!" moment -- I think the appropriate word is "emit" or "emission." Sure enough, a quick dictionary search yielded the info below.

Emit.
1 a: to throw or give off or out (as light or heat) b: to send out : eject
2 a: to issue with authority ; especially : to put (as money) into circulation b: obsolete : publish
3: to give utterance or voice to <emitted a groan>
First attested in 1607. From Latin ?missi? (“‘sending forth’”) (also possibly influenced by Middle French émission) from ?mitt? (“‘send out’”) from ex (“‘from, out of’”) + mitt? (“‘send’”).

The reason it's "emit" rather than "exmit" is found in the Latin usage of "e-": "var. of ex-, occurring in words of Latin origin before consonants other than c, f, p, q, s, and t: emit."

Is "exmit" in the dictionary? Not in the one sitting on my desk. I don't have an OED, but if anyone here has one at work, I'd be really curious to check it. Is it a made up & fake word? Not really. It's a variation on the common English word "emit" that apparently uses incorrect Latin grammar ("ex-"). As I noted earlier, "exmit" has been used for over 100 years in various contexts. I have seen references to it in the context of schools and education stretching back at least until the 1990s. I suspect that most people prefer "exmission" over "emission" in the schools context because of the potty-humor associations with "emissions." Who really wants to talk about "St. Albans' policies on its boys' emissions"?

Unless someone has an OED, I think I've solved the mystery as far as i am interested in researching it. If anyone else wants to actually do some research, feel free to post it.

[Anonymous]

OED hits this board- at least it's not the skids. I feel better. Potty humor via OED references trumps the desperation of emissions.

If only there was an emission formula you could bottle....