h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Invented Words - A848702
Author: Alex A (Keeper of 7) vote for me in Bikini Competition @ A781148 - U180229

What do you think?

Any suggestions for additional words gratefully recieved!

AA

"Battlestar Gallactica" used "Felgercarb" or something like that.

Famous made-up words include "quiz" and "Blurb" and "Smoot"and "Fnord" and "Karass".

Surely you could quote some neologisms from the late great inspiration for this site, the man who redefined the word 'trilogy'!

another rich vein is to be found in the once-great 2000AD comics.

Judge Dredd's favourite expletive was always "Drock!". They also had a new word for replace G*d in phrases like 'What in ****'s name was that?'

There are a whole bunch of invented words in Anthony Burgess's 'A Clockwork Orange', too.

Hmm, I think this entry is based on a false dichotomy: that there are *any* words that weren't invented.

-Martin

This entry is about words that were deliberately & contiously invented by authors/scriptwriters etc, not words that arise 'spontaneously' as part of the normal growth of the English language.

I realise there is probably a grey area between the two, but my examples demonstrate what I'm getting at.

Can anyone come up with the exact "Battlestar Gallactica" expletive?

OK, what are the origins of "quiz" and "Blurb" and "Smoot"and "Fnord" and "Karass"?

JD's 'Drock' is a good example - I'll add it to next update.

Thanks,

AA

I'm not entirely clear how you can 'continuously invent' a word.

Anyway, your examples appear to demonstrate that you wish to have an entry on words that came from sci-fi and fantasy roots. Would that be accurate?

-Martin

Hi Lucinda,

i think it's fair to draw a distinction between words that 'develop' from other words and words that are 'coined' by a given individual at a specific time. That is Shirley the meaning of 'neologism'...

it's true that this entry seems to be favouring sci-fi examples, but i think, for example, Lewis Carrol can equally be said to have 'invented' quite a few in his time.

I admit i'm not sure where this entry is going, though.

Well, the classic example is Shakespeare, who invented around 1500 individual words (estimates vary), not including new phrases and new meanings of existing words. There's even a book: "Coined By Shakespeare", which talks about a selection of a few hundred of them.

I don't think your distinction is valid. Consider 'to sister': it was coined by Shakespeare, but it clearly developed from the noun 'sister'. Shakespeare also coined 'misquote', which clearly developed from 'quote'. To take examples from the entry, Tolkein coined 'orc' and 'hobbit', developing the words from Old English, and Niven coined 'tanj', developed from 'there ain't no justice'.

A neologism is just a new word, expression, or usage. It's purely an age thing - nothing more.

-Martin

what about Carrol - 'all slithy were the Borogroves' (?) etc.

i can see what you mean about 'age', but there is also a question of 'totally invented' or 'developed from an existing word'

your example of 'misquote' is a good example of a word that, yes, has been coined, but no, isn't an 'invented' word in the 'taken out of the blue' sense of Carrol or Burgess.

i'm not on a high horse here, i just think there are varying decrees of 'inventiveness' involved with the coining of the examples we are discussing here.

Sure, I'll agree that some inventions are more inventive than others. It doesn't stop them all being fundamentally inventions, though: words don't spontaneously appear on tablets of stone. Almost every word we have was once invented by a single person at a single time. There are a few words that were invented by contemporaneously by a number of people, but that's as spontaneous as it gets.

Incidentally, the borogroves were *mimsy*: it was the tobe that was slithy...

-Martin

Toves, Martin, Toves. Honestly, if you're going to nitpick, you could at least get it right! .

How about saying that the entry is about words that were consciously invented by one person, for a specific reason at a specific time, rather than a word that evolved to express an existing idea.

I'm fairly sure it's 'Droink!', in 2000AD as well, although I;m willing to be proven wrong on that one.

As a good example- how about 'grok' from Stranger in a Strange Land? The word is essential to the book, but we don't actually find out what it means until about three quarters of the way through.

ah yes, getting my borogroves and toves mixed up!

the JD expletives are definitely Drokk! (described on the official site as 'a legal expletive', ) and Grud! (for G*d)

they did have Boink - but it was that stuff you could get inside a ball of and bounce around the place.

Ah, that's it

On swearwords, we also have 'cruk', from the Dr. Who New Adventures, 'Frel' from Farscape and probably loads more I've forgotten...

The whole Battlestar Galactica thing was getting one my nerves (that's the second time today I've wanted to use a smiley). We *need* one. Anyway, a quick serach turned up frak, Felgercarb, and Garmoging as words used by Starbuck as expletives.

The whole Battlestar Galactica thing was getting on my nerves (that's the second time today I've wanted to use a smiley). We *need* one. Anyway, a quick serach turned up frak, Felgercarb, and Garmoging as words used by Starbuck as expletives.

"OK, what are the origins of "quiz" and "Blurb" and "Smoot"and "Fnord" and "Karass"?"

I'll have to look up quiz further, but it dates from 1749 and apochraphally(sp?) is supposed to be the result of a bet.

Blurb was coined by Gelett Burgess around 1907.

"Fnord" is a Robert Anton Wilson thing.

"Smoot" is a unit of measurement, named after the MIT student who was used to measure the distance across a bridge forty-odd years ago.

"Karass" is a Kurt Vonnegut word for a group of people who have something in common. I've probably misstated this, but that's the best I can do at the moment.


I wanna Chemise like my Sister Kate!

An entry about incented words and not one mention of DNA (frood, etc) in it, nor in the thread? What is h2g2 coming to

Are any of you subscribed to A Word a Day? http://wordsmith.org/awad/ It's a mailing list which sends out one word (or short phrase) every day, with an explanation of its origin. Today's word is 'hapax legomenon', which means a word or form that has only one recorded use (and must therefore, be invented). The example they give is that of Linda Tripp telling Monica Lewinsky her opinion of Bill Clinton: "Right now, I think he's a schwonk".

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An entry about incented words and not one mention of DNA (frood, etc) in it, nor in the thread? What is h2g2 coming to
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From (my) post 3:

"Surely you could quote some neologisms from the late great inspiration for this site, the man who redefined the word 'trilogy'!"

Lots of good stuff. I guess I should define more clearly that I am talking about consciously coined or invented words.

BTW above I meant 'consciously invented' not 'continuously' - d'oh.

What's the etiquette for updating entries in Writing Workshop? Can I go ahead & revise my article?