Aug 25, 2011 / Topic Ideas

Make up a word and its definition

Topic #230:

Make up a word and its definition.

We’ll pick the best invented words and highlight them in a future post.

Background: The English language, like all languages, is always changing. Words are always moving in how they are used, and older words decline in use, while new words enter common usage. Any lexicographer will tell you dictionaries are meant to record usage, rather than to define it permanently, which is why they release new dictionaries every year.

Shakespeare for example, made up many new words and changed the usage of many old words and sayings. And often words enter English from other languages. The German word schadenfreude, which means to take pleasure in other people’s misfortune, entered the language because there was no single word with that meaning.

How to come up with a new word:

  • Think about a situation or a problem that’s common, that doesn’t have a single word for it, and then make one up.
  • Combine two words together, like making smog from smoke + fog.  This is called a portmanteau. For example, when your coffee is too hot to to drink, could be called a cofferno  (coffee + inferno).
  • If you know more than one language, think of a word you like from another language that’s hard to explain in English.
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  2. twitterfication:

    To use misspellings and abbreviations (intentional or otherwise) to the end of conserving characters when posting on Twitter. (Not mine, but necessary for what I came up with.)

    twitblivion from twitterfy and oblivion. the state of being twitterfied to the extent that the phrase or sentence is practically illegible to anyone with the possible (but not mandatory) exception of the author.

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  6. I had made up a new word and its meaning some time back:
    Denemy

    Definition:
    A pair of jeans you simply love but it refuses to fit you no matter how hard you try.

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  7. “SOCIO-ECONOMIC”-(SOCIETY-PEOPLE IN GENERAL,LIVING TOGETHER IN COMMUNITIES)-(ECONOMY-THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PRODUCTION,TRADE AND THE SUPPLY OF MONEY,IN ANY GIVEN SOCIETY.SOCIO-ECONOMIC POLICIES ARE THEREFORE INTER-TWINED POLICIES THAT REGULATE A SOCIETY

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  8. Atmosflavour – Having a particularly unique or exotic perspective, feeling, or ambience in a given location or situation. Usually involves multiple senses (sight, sounds, and smell)..

    eg. “Walking around the city I noticed each block I passed had its own atmosflavour.”

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