# Favorite Made Up Words By A Writer? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 24, 2009, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795 "2009-06-24T02:37:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795/1 "2009-06-24T02:37:58Z")
I am no huge fan of Stephen King, but I recently read a short story by him in the compilation of _Everything’s Eventual_, and in one of the stories, he makes up a word called “sankofite”. I thought it was very neat sounding. Any other words made up by writers that slam a point home, embellish creatively or otherwise play a significant role in a story? ---
**Author:** ![Gleena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b3f665/32.png) [@Gleena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gleena)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795/2 "2009-06-24T02:44:43Z")
Crivens! Waily waily waily! Both useful exclaimations from Prachett’s Wee Free Men books. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795/3 "2009-06-24T02:55:56Z")
> [@Gleena](#): > > Crivens! > Waily waily waily! > > Both useful exclaimations from Prachett’s Wee Free Men books. Crivens? Nice one. I can think of a few uses for what _I think_ that “word” means! ---
**Author:** ![Gleena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b3f665/32.png) [@Gleena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gleena)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795/4 "2009-06-24T02:57:44Z")
It means exactly what you think it means - it’s an exclaimation of Oh Goodness! or something much stronger. Wee Free Men are kids books but SO GOOD. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795/5 "2009-06-24T03:06:36Z")
Larry Niven-Tanj! There Ain’t No Justice ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795/6 "2009-06-24T03:26:59Z")
**Timeloose** from _Radix_ by A. A. Attanasio : An entity not constrained by time **Illuders** ( _From A Planet Called Treason_ ) : People who can manipulate the minds of others and appear as they wish to be. **Flintsteel** ( From the Bolo stories ) : An extremely tough metal. ---
**Author:** ![Saltire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saltire/32/553_2.png) [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795/7 "2009-06-24T03:41:22Z")
Isaac Asimov was proud to say he appeared in the Oxford English Dictionary 4 times, so he not only made up words, but he got others to use them, somehow. Maybe I misremembered the number, as I can only think of 3–Robotics, Robotic, and Psychohistory. Of course, Lewis Carroll had a couple of his neologisms catch on. Chortle and Vorpal (caught on in a subculture, at least) are the two I can think of right off. He also coined the linguistic sense of ‘portmanteau.’ I think perhaps the coolest thing any science has done for a cartoonist is that the paleontologists who study dinosaurs have actually begun to use ‘Thagomizer’ in scholarly papers to refer to the spiked tail some herbivores sported. It’s from a joke in Gary Larson’s Far Side. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795/8 "2009-06-24T03:45:36Z")
> [@](#): > > Of course, Lewis Carroll had a couple of his neologisms catch on. Chortle and Vorpal (caught on in a subculture, at least) are the two I can think of right off. He also coined the linguistic sense of ‘portmanteau.’ He had more than that. His “Jabberwocky” not only gave up those, but “galumphing” and “burbled” as well. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795/9 "2009-06-24T03:49:37Z")
I know it’s debatable, but I was taught as a kid that Poe made up a word for the sound of the bells. \*\*Tintinnabulation \*\* ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795/10 "2009-06-24T03:50:23Z")
“Cromulent”, from _The Simpsons_. Now widely acknowledged to mean “Valid” or “acceptable”. (As in, “That’s a perfectly cromulent explanation”) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795/11 "2009-06-24T04:12:54Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > Larry Niven-Tanj! > > There Ain’t No Justice Better still: Tasp. Legalize direct-current stimulus! **LEGALIZE WIREHEADING!** ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795/12 "2009-06-24T04:16:01Z")
Fnord. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795/13 "2009-06-24T04:31:12Z")
Tanstaafl! ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795/14 "2009-06-24T05:21:04Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > I know it’s debatable, but I was taught as a kid that Poe made up a word for the sound of the bells. > > \*\*Tintinnabulation \*\* Damnit, just what I was going to come in to say. (Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to turn a fan on to drown out the faint hiss/ring) ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795/15 "2009-06-24T05:25:07Z")
[Dakka](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MoreDakka). Can’t ever have 'nuff dakka. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795/16 "2009-06-24T05:34:50Z")
> [@](#): > > Isaac Asimov was proud to say he appeared in the Oxford English Dictionary 4 times, so he not only made up words, but he got others to use them, somehow. Maybe I misremembered the number, as I can only think of 3–Robotics, Robotic, and Psychohistory. The fourth one is “positronic”. From Heinlein, meanwhile, we get “waldo” and “grok”. Which, amazingly, is in Firefox’s spelling list. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795/17 "2009-06-24T05:49:30Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > [Dakka](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MoreDakka). Can’t ever have 'nuff dakka. I’ve never been a fan of that one, to be honest. Firstly, it sounds like the capital of either a West African country or an Indian Raj, and secondly, automatic weapons don’t go “Dakkadakkadakkadakka” when the’re fired in real life (at least, not in my experience). ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795/18 "2009-06-24T12:03:02Z")
I like **granfalloon** and **karass** , coined by Kurt Vonnegut. If I remember right, a granfalloon is a meaningless connection or association that people wrongly consider to be an actual connection. I think Vonnegut used “Hoosiers” as an example. A karass is kind of the opposite of a granfalloon, people who are deeply connected somehow and don’t know it. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795/19 "2009-06-24T12:19:38Z")
There are others from _A Clockwork Orange_, but groodies will do for now. ---
**Author:** ![Orville\_mogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/aeb1de/32.png) [@Orville\_mogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orville_mogul)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795/20 "2009-06-24T12:26:53Z")
> [@Crotalus](#): > > I like **granfalloon** and **karass** , coined by Kurt Vonnegut. If I remember right, a granfalloon is a meaningless connection or association that people wrongly consider to be an actual connection. I think Vonnegut used “Hoosiers” as an example. A karass is kind of the opposite of a granfalloon, people who are deeply connected somehow and don’t know it. Hey, it’s great to see that someone else remembers these two words. Not only are they great words, but I totally identify with the philosophical concepts. It’s only a matter of time until someone mentions Stephen R Donaldson… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795.md?page=2)