# New words we need. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 3, 2016, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-words-we-need/747846 "2016-03-03T18:38:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2016, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-words-we-need/747846/1 "2016-03-03T18:38:35Z")
I was just thinking we need to create new word. Something to describe the action a crumb on the bed makes when you try to brush it off, but it deftly jumps right over your hand and lands right back where it was originally. I hate that, so it has to be a :mad: sounding word. ---
**Author:** ![stillownedbysetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@stillownedbysetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stillownedbysetters)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2016, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-words-we-need/747846/2 "2016-03-03T18:54:06Z")
It’s times like these when the German language serves you well. Jumpincrumbincaca . 😃 ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2016, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-words-we-need/747846/3 "2016-03-03T20:32:21Z")
Way back in the 80s, they had things called [sniglets](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sniglet), which were made up words like you are describing. One I remember was “cheeriomagnetism: the ability of the last seven cheerios to find each other in the bowl of milk and cling together” ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2016, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-words-we-need/747846/4 "2016-03-03T22:31:53Z")
Crumping Jacks? mmm ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2016, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-words-we-need/747846/5 "2016-03-03T23:06:05Z")
crumbjump? ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2016, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-words-we-need/747846/6 "2016-03-03T23:38:16Z")
> [@wolfman](#): > > I was just thinking we need to create new word. Something to describe the action a crumb on the bed makes when you try to brush it off, but it deftly jumps right over your hand and lands right back where it was originally. I hate that, so it has to be a :mad: sounding word. It occurs to me that – the English language being the broad and ancient thing that it is – there might already be a word for just such an occasion, if only we could find it. Perhaps not crumb-in-the-bed specific, but describing that general behaviour. The best I can come up with at the moment is from the world of competitive tiddlywinks: “scrunge” – the action of a wink that bounces back out of the pot. Also, as a bonus – it sounds pretty :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2016, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-words-we-need/747846/7 "2016-03-03T23:58:09Z")
We need a word for _worthless nonsense_. Let me see, ummmm. I got it - trumpery ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-words-we-need/747846/8 "2016-03-04T00:02:05Z")
Frustostatis. From Latin _frustum_ (“crumb”) and _stasis_ (New Latin from Greek στάσις, “a standing in place”). I think it is a coincidence (but a convenient one) that it sounds like _frustrate_ and related words. I invented the word _ambervalence_, for that ambivalent feeling you get when the traffic light turns yellow when you are at just at the wrong distance from it, so that you have trouble deciding whether you should stop or keep going. ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-words-we-need/747846/9 "2016-03-04T01:14:48Z")
> [@bibliophage](#): > > I invented the word _ambervalence_, for that ambivalent feeling you get when the traffic light turns yellow when you are at just at the wrong distance from it, so that you have trouble deciding whether you should stop or keep going. The pros call it the dilemma zone. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-words-we-need/747846/10 "2016-03-04T02:09:32Z")
Thanks guys, Frustoscrunging it is. I hate frustoscrunging saltines. :mad: Yeah I mixed roots, suck on it pedants. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-words-we-need/747846/11 "2016-03-04T02:22:15Z")
> [@wolfman](#): > > I was just thinking we need to create new word. Something to describe the action a crumb on the bed makes when you try to brush it off, but it deftly jumps right over your hand and lands right back where it was originally. I hate that, so it has to be a :mad: sounding word. Douglas Adams would have assigned a [weird British placename](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Meaning_of_Liff). Maybe [Crummocksteps](http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=278500&y=683500&z=120&sv=crum&st=3&tl=Map+of+Crummocksteps,+Falkirk&searchp=ids.srf&mapp=map.srf). ---
**Author:** ![wilberbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/73ab20/32.png) [@wilberbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wilberbear)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-words-we-need/747846/12 "2016-03-04T02:58:44Z")
In the older days, when languages weren’t really enforced, there was probably more freedom in application as the meanings were probably attached as feelings & impulses in the sounds that happen to form words instead of the words themselves. These days, it seems that the modern education system kind of rips apart that perceptual impulse from sound, which results into more formalized language via a hurdle against new sounding words straight from animal utterance. ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-words-we-need/747846/13 "2016-03-04T09:17:26Z")
> [@wolfman](#): > > Thanks guys, Frustoscrunging it is. I hate frustoscrunging saltines. :mad: > > Yeah I mixed roots, suck on it pedants. What the hell – go for it. It’s got a certain Yosemite Sam feel to it. I like it. I also like how **Bibliophage** and I made suggestions that align neatly with our choice of screen names, like a miniature inkhorn debate. ---
**Author:** ![MetroGnome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e7dd6/32.png) [@MetroGnome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MetroGnome)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-words-we-need/747846/14 "2016-03-04T18:00:00Z")
Here is a [recent story](http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-35653871) about an 8 year old Italian kid getting some momentum behind his newly coined word “petaloso” meaning “full of petals.” When inquired, the Accademia della Crusca (the institution that oversees the use of the Italian language) responded by saying “The word you invented is well formed and could be used in the Italian language. It is beautiful and clear.” The caveat being that in order to be official, it must be widely used and understood. “If you manage to spread your word among many people who start saying ‘What a petaloso flower this is!’, then petaloso will have become a word in Italian.” Am I bitter my suggestion that floral enthusiasts call themselves “petalphiles” was not embraced with the same warmth? No, I’m just happy for any attention paid to the often overlooked wordsmithing community, so hard do we work over our hot forge of molten letters. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-words-we-need/747846/15 "2016-03-04T19:17:58Z")
> [@xizor](#): > > Way back in the 80s, they had things called [sniglets](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sniglet), which were made up words like you are describing. > One I remember was “cheeriomagnetism: the ability of the last seven cheerios to find each other in the bowl of milk and cling together” I loved Sniglets. One that I still use a lot is “cheedle”, the orange residue that sticks to your fingers when eating a bag of Cheetos.