# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795/41 "2009-06-24T18:41:30Z")
“Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.” A great setting that real words might not be able to define. Burgess’s Nadsat slang in _The Clockwork Orange_ is very scene setting and is at least partially made up by the author. ---
**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, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795/42 "2009-06-24T18:49:38Z")
> [@](#): > > Lobstrosity is a fun word. Deadly crustaceans from Stephen King’s Dark Tower books. Sounds like it’d be related to the Crushstacean, a giant crab in Brian Clevinger’s _Nuklear Age_. Another one I remembered: “Mathom”, from _Lord of the Rings_. It’s a Hobbitish word for an old trinket that doesn’t really have much use but you keep around anyway, the sort of thing that gets passed around extensively as a present. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795/43 "2009-06-24T21:02:15Z")
The XKCD guy bitched about the made-up words in Anathem, but he’s full of beans. It was well done, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of that language makes it into the general vocabulary. He’ll be our generation’s Heinlein. ---
**Author:** ![Scruff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Scruff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scruff)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795/44 "2009-06-24T21:32:41Z")
**gorram** from the Firefly writers. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795/45 "2009-06-24T21:40:49Z")
Humorist Gelett Burgess (who wrote [_The Purple Cow_](http://www.poetry-archive.com/b/the_purple_cow.html)) is responsible for the adoption of [_blurb_](http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/blurb/) as a synonym for “publicity” or “testimonial”. ---
**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, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795/46 "2009-06-24T21:42:17Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > “Twas brillig, and the slithy toves > Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; > All mimsy were the borogoves, > And the mome raths outgrabe.” > > A great setting that real words might not be able to define. Humpty Dumpty explains to Alice that “slithy” is made up of “slimy” and “lithe” – two words packed together “like a portmanteau.” And “portmanteau,” meaning a composite word like “brunch,” has actually entered the language (“slithy,” not so much). ---
**Author:** ![Nature\_s\_Call](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nature_s_call/32/19006_2.png) [@Nature\_s\_Call](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nature_s_Call)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795/47 "2009-06-24T23:25:03Z")
George Carlin paraphrase: I hate it when people say “use your own words” I’d prefer to use the same words everyone else is using. ---
**Author:** ![runcible\_spoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc29f/32.png) [@runcible\_spoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/runcible_spoon)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795/48 "2009-06-25T01:01:37Z")
> [@Nature\_s\_Call](#): > > George Carlin paraphrase: I hate it when people say “use your own words” I’d prefer to use the same words everyone else is using. That reminds me of the Calvin and Hobbes wherein Newton’s First Law of Motion is described - in Calvin’s own words - as ‘Yakka foob mog. Grug pubbawup zink wattoom gazork. Chumble spuzz.’ ---
**Author:** ![Serenata67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/serenata67/32/10646_2.png) [@Serenata67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serenata67)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795/49 "2009-06-25T01:32:46Z")
[Blow-jobby](http://gawker.com/5301856/burger-king-shuns-subtlety-in-ads-for-super-seven-incher-sandwich) see this [discussion](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=522241), too. I saw the word blow-jobby and I thought, "we tend to put ‘ish’ and ‘y’ at the end of anything to make it an adjective… and a new word. Or does that not count? ---
**Author:** ![Jules\_Andre](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jules_andre/32/9334_2.png) [@Jules\_Andre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jules_Andre)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795/50 "2009-06-25T05:30:53Z")
Was George Orwell the first to use **doublespeak** and the like in his _1984_ ? ---
**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 25, 2009, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795/51 "2009-06-25T10:43:33Z")
> [@Jules\_Andre](#): > > Was George Orwell the first to use **doublespeak** and the like in his _1984_ ? No one invented doublespeak. There has always been doublespeak. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795/52 "2009-06-25T11:16:45Z")
> [@Jules\_Andre](#): > > Was George Orwell the first to use **doublespeak** and the like in his _1984_ ? Doublethink, but Newspeak - no comparatives or superlatives (use “plus” and “doubleplus”) and “un-” prefix rather than independent negatives. Thus “good, better, best, bad, worse, worst” becomes “good, plusgood, doubleplusgood, ungood, plusungood, doubleplusungood”. The book title, btw, was _Nineteen Eighty-Four_ - words, not figures. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795/53 "2009-06-25T20:55:38Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > Another from Larry Niven- **Rishathra** “Sexual practice outside one’s own species but within the intelligent hominoids” [Shall we indulge in rishathra?](http://books.google.com/books?id=R6FmrUbbuVwC&pg=PA170&lpg=PA170&dq=Shall+we+indulge+in+rishathra%3F&source=bl&ots=nc1TXm5hhh&sig=7sNZ59I6svSGz0D2xXp-zbea-zc&hl=en&ei=KeNDSuzyMMintgfU_L2gAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5) (Scroll to p. 170.) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795/54 "2009-06-25T21:03:48Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > The book title, btw, was _Nineteen Eighty-Four_ - words, not figures. 🙂 And it was published in Nineteen Forty-Eight. ---
**Author:** ![wunderkammer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ed8c4c/32.png) [@wunderkammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wunderkammer)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795/55 "2009-06-25T22:00:54Z")
> [@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. One of my psych professors slipped a question into one of his study guides early in the term that was along the lines of “Is schizophrenia a karass or a granfalloon? Explain.” I thought, “Cool. Vonnegut joke,” and thought that maybe he wasn’t going to be so boring after all. Imagine my dismay when, at the next class meeting, it turned out that less than a quarter of the class had read any Vonnegut, and the professor proceeded to belabor the point with excruciating awkwardness. He even used the terms on the midterm exam. I think about half of my class is irrationally prejudiced against Vonnegut now. ☹ ---
**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 25, 2009, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795/56 "2009-06-25T23:36:15Z")
Remembered another one: “Ansible”, meaning a faster-than-light communication device, as coined by Ursula K. LeGuin (and subsequently used by many other SF writers, including Orson Scott Card). ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795/57 "2009-06-26T07:55:32Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > [Shall we indulge in rishathra?](http://books.google.com/books?id=R6FmrUbbuVwC&pg=PA170&lpg=PA170&dq=Shall+we+indulge+in+rishathra%3F&source=bl&ots=nc1TXm5hhh&sig=7sNZ59I6svSGz0D2xXp-zbea-zc&hl=en&ei=KeNDSuzyMMintgfU_L2gAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5) > > (Scroll to p. 170.) You have insufficient bodily openings. ---
**Author:** ![BACI](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ce73a5/32.png) [@BACI](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BACI)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795/58 "2009-06-26T11:12:36Z")
Indeed satirist John Clarke invented not just new words but an entire sport - Farnarkling. [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFOImv3aTyo) Plenty of written commentary about Dave Sorenson and the sport of Farnarkiling is around and is well worth digging up. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795/59 "2009-06-26T14:05:48Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > No one invented doublespeak. There has always been doublespeak. Yabbut from about the mid 1930s it was called double_talk_, and still is in not-so-literary circles. Now tell me who first used _yabbut_. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Risha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5fc32e/32.png) [@Risha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Risha)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795/60 "2009-06-26T14:39:23Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > [Shall we indulge in rishathra?](http://books.google.com/books?id=R6FmrUbbuVwC&pg=PA170&lpg=PA170&dq=Shall+we+indulge+in+rishathra%3F&source=bl&ots=nc1TXm5hhh&sig=7sNZ59I6svSGz0D2xXp-zbea-zc&hl=en&ei=KeNDSuzyMMintgfU_L2gAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5) > > (Scroll to p. 170.) I feel that I must clarify at this point that I, personally, have never dated outside of my species. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-made-up-words-by-a-writer/500795.md?page=4)