# Words made up purely to rhyme? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 11, 2001, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-made-up-purely-to-rhyme/72075 "2001-07-11T12:24:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kendo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Kendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kendo)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2001, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-made-up-purely-to-rhyme/72075/1 "2001-07-11T12:24:43Z")
Are there any words that have been made up purely to rhyme (song/poem) and then have actually found their way into everyday english language? * * * [http://www.laughsend.com](http://www.laughsend.com) - for all your household comedy needs ---
**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:** [July 12, 2001, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-made-up-purely-to-rhyme/72075/2 "2001-07-12T01:48:00Z")
A good question, but to answer it we would have to know the mind of the coiner. For example, Lewis Carroll rhymes his invention _Bandersnatch_ with _claws that catch_ in “JABBERWOCKY”. The uncapitalized _bandersnatch_ has since turned up in some dictionaries. But was he looking for something to rhyme with _catch_, or did he invent _Bandesnatch_ first and then rhyme it with _catch_? We may never know for sure. ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2001, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-made-up-purely-to-rhyme/72075/3 "2001-07-12T08:01:52Z")
I’m not sure if this was meant to rhyme with anything, but I do know that Dr. Seuss (who seemed to rhyme anything with everything… yes, that was a pun) coined the word “nerd” in one of his books (I forget the title, 'cept it had the word “zoo” in it. “If I worked at the zoo” or something like that). ---
**Author:** ![Kendo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Kendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kendo)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2001, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-made-up-purely-to-rhyme/72075/4 "2001-07-12T09:14:43Z")
Yes, Jabberwocky was the poem I had in my mind, but I would have been sure that more words had been invented. It seems to me that it would be very ‘arty’ to make up a word, eg. something like “Quarange” to rhyme with “Orange”. As for the ‘nerd’ info - cool. Like that. Dr. Seuss was a genius. Here’s a link that questions that genius, but this is my own page, so if this is not on, then I’ll happily fold: [http://www.laughsend.com/news/index.cfm?sectionID=5&storyID=279](http://www.laughsend.com/news/index.cfm?sectionID=5&storyID=279) Any more suggestions of words made up to rhyme? By the way, what does ‘bandersnatch’ mean in these dictionaries? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2001, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-made-up-purely-to-rhyme/72075/5 "2001-07-12T12:43:06Z")
Though Suess definitely coined “nerd” in “If I Ran the Zoo,” there’s no indication that his use is the origin of the term as we know it now. It’s most likely coincidence. There’s no particular reason why anyone would remember Seuss’s nerd any more than they’d remember an It-Kutch, a Preep, a Proo or a Nerkle, all of which are mentioned (and pictured) in the same sentence. In any case, “nerd” wasn’t coined to rhyme; “Proo” was. The only made-up word in Jaberwocky to make it into the language is “chortle.” However, chortle is not a rhyme in the poem. ---
**Author:** ![grimpixie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@grimpixie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grimpixie)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2001, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-made-up-purely-to-rhyme/72075/6 "2001-07-12T12:43:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kendo \* > \*\*By the way, what does ‘bandersnatch’ mean in these dictionaries? \*\* According to Webster’s > [@](#): > > bandersnatch (n.) ban·der·snatch > > 1. an imaginary wild animal of fierce disposition. > 2. a person of uncouth or unconventional habits, attitudes, etc., esp. one considered a menace, nuisance, or the like. > > The Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary Copyright © 2001 by Random House Inc. Used with permission. All rights reserved. Here is is, used in “real english” > [@](#): > > “In getting exactly what they wanted, the college presidents may find > a surprise in the gift package, a frumious bandersnatch, if you will.” > James Ahearn, Most of us have worked at one time or another for a boss > we didn’t like, The Record (Bergen County, NJ), 11 May 1994. [Here’s a picture of one](http://www.ravendesign.fsnet.co.uk/bandersnatch.htm) How’s that for an impressive answer… ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2001, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-made-up-purely-to-rhyme/72075/7 "2001-07-12T12:59:00Z")
_Oranges, poranges! Who says? Oranges, poranges! There’s another one! Oranges, poranges! Who says There ain’t no rhyme for “oranges”?_ – Witchiepoo, on _H.R. Puf’n’stuff_ ---
**Author:** ![blainer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a698b9/32.png) [@blainer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blainer)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2001, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-made-up-purely-to-rhyme/72075/8 "2001-07-12T19:02:51Z")
[hijack] I thought that syringe rhymed with orange. I have read that bulb is the only word in the english language that has no rhyme. [\hijack] ---
**Author:** ![stuyguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2001, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-made-up-purely-to-rhyme/72075/9 "2001-07-12T19:14:51Z")
Can’t say that any of his words made it into everyday acceptable usage, but Broadway/Hollywood lyricist E.Y. (“Yip”) Harburg twisted his language “to fit” all the time. Probably the most notable example is the song “Something Kind of Grandish” from _Finian’s Rainbow_. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2001, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-made-up-purely-to-rhyme/72075/10 "2001-07-12T19:51:35Z")
I was also thinking of some Harburg lyrics, from “The Wizard of Oz.” He rhymed, among others, “elephant” with “cellophant,” “hippopatamous” with “top to bottomous” and “brontosaurus” with “king o’ fores’.” When I was younger that was always my least favorite song from the movie, until I began to appreciate the wordplay. ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2001, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-made-up-purely-to-rhyme/72075/11 "2001-07-12T21:05:22Z")
If I remember rightly, the nicknames “Hokie” and “Wahoo” were both created purely to rhyme with other lines in the school fight songs of Virginia Tech and UVa, respectively. (As a student, “Hokie Pokie” had a wholly different definition from that commonly used outside of Blacksburg, VA.) ---
**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:** [July 14, 2001, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-made-up-purely-to-rhyme/72075/12 "2001-07-14T05:03:55Z")
I thought rhyming slang might reap a huge harvest of answers, but the only one I could come up with was [eighty-six](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_291b.html) which got its meaning of “to reject” from its rhyming with “nix.” (Maybe.) ---
**Author:** ![Beruang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/77aa72/32.png) [@Beruang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beruang)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2001, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-made-up-purely-to-rhyme/72075/13 "2001-07-15T08:15:48Z")
The editors of Random House Dictionary consider the Seuss origin of “nerd” as plausible, but not incontrovertible: > **[Penguin Random House](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com?date=19960802)** > > Committed to publishing great books, connecting readers and authors globally, and spreading the love of reading.