Neologism: Difference between revisions

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* On ''alt.comics.2000ad'', newcomer writer Simon Spurrier referred to a troll as an "arsegike", misspelling "arsehole" by typing the letters to the left of some of the ones he required. The term has now joined the standard ''2000AD'' lexicon, alongside phrases such as "zarjaz", "grexnix" and "Squaxx dekk Thargo".

** Webcomic artist David Willis did the same thing, accidentally inventing the exclamation "wiigii!" by typing the word "woohoo!" with the right hand shifted one spot to the left. It became the [[Catch Phrase|favorite expression]] of the title character in ''[[It's Walky]]''.

* ''[[Tom Poes]]'': This Dutch comic strip is well known for creating many neologisms.

* Arguably, "Sexily" "Gothically"/"Goffically" and quite a few of the other words (usually verbs or adjectives) in the infamous ''[[My Immortal]]''.

* ''[[Forbiden Fruit: The Tempation Of Edward Cullen]]'' gives us "plimpled". It's apparently a way of speaking, that can inexplicably be done "mutely".

* ''[[Legolas By Laura|legolas by laura]]'': "and then Legolas was happy for somerising."

* ''[[Mary Poppins]]'': Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

* ''[[The Producers]]'': "Creative accounting."

* Harold Ramis notes on the ''[[Ghostbusters]]'' commentary track, "I take full credit for turning 'slime' into a verb."

* ''[[A Clockwork Orange (novel)|A Clockwork Orange]]'': "Horrorshow," a corruption of "khorosho", the Russian word for "good". This book had an entire [[Future Slang]], much of it based on Russian, some of which has trickled into common use. "Ultraviolence" and "droog" are some of the more popular ones.

* ''[[Brave New World (novel)|Brave New World]]'': though it didn't create the word "Soma" (Huxley borrowed the term for the unknown drug that ancient Hindus used to "bestride the Universe"), it is responsible for its modern popularity and connotations.

** According to ''Don't Panic: Douglas Adams and the Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' by [[Neil Gaiman]], it was directly swiped from Adams's English teacher, although Adams later acknowledged that ''he'' may have swiped it from Jennings. Ironically, it was then swiped from Adams and Lloyd by an ad agency under the name "Oxtail English Dictionary" - the title Lloyd came up with when using them as space fillers in the ''[[Not the Nine O'Clock News]]'' calendar prior to making them a book.

* The book ''Brain Droppings'' by [[George Carlin]] has a list of "Words and phrases we should have," including "pocketry = a garment's pockets," "firmth = firmness" and "unpark = drive away."

* Edward Lear and "runcible"... whose definition he never hinted at. "Runcible spoon" from "The Owl and the Pussycat" has been adopted as a phrase, but no one can agree on whether a runcible spoon is a spork, a spork with a knife edge on the handle, or some other kind of cool spoon. None of these can be right anyway, since he used "runcible" to modify other nouns, so whatever it meant isn't spoon-exclusive.

* The movements of Spinfer and Mawk in ''[[Welkin Weasels]]'' are described as "smooling". The narrator points out that this isn't a real word but it describes the action perfectly.

* ''[[The Peter Principle]]'' by Raymond Hull and hierarchiologist Laurence J. Peter has several, with a glossary in the back of the book.

* ''[[Peanuts]]'' famously coined the term "security blanket".

* ''[[The Far Side]]:'' One cartoon featured a classroom of cavemen, with the professor pointing at a picture of a Stegosaur's tail spikes: "Now this end is called the thagomizer ... after the late Thag Simmons." After it was found out that no term had indeed been coined for the spikes, "thagomizer" has since semi-seriously entered paleontologists' lexicon. It's appeared in a serious context in the professional journal ''Nature'', and according to [[The Other Wiki]], is used by the Smithsonian Institution, the Dinosaur National Monument, the book ''The Complete Dinosaur'' and the [[BBC]] documentary series ''[[Planet Dinosaur]]''.

*** As a rhetorical device, this is known as "anthimeria," and was heavily used by, yep, Shakespeare.

** "Verbing" itself is actually an interesting case: it is a noun, used as a gerund.<ref>a verb used as a noun</ref> As such, it is a noun used as a verb used as a noun.

== [[Live-Action TV]] ==

* In ''[[Blackadder]]'', Edmund torments Dr. Samuel Johnson by making up words such as "contrafibularities", "anaspeptic", "phrasmotic", and "interphrastically".

* The ''[[Deadly Rooms of Death|DROD]]'' series extends "once, twice, thrice" as follows: quarce, quince, sence, septence, octence, novence. All of these combine Latin numeric prefixes with the "-ce" ending of the first three. They have begun to show up in other places outside the series.

* ''[[Nethack]]'' uses the word "cornuthaum", which was specifically made up for the game, and refer to a wizard's trademark pointed hat.

* ''[[Septerra Core]]''. The title contains "Septerra", which is the name of the planet the game takes place on; "Septerra" can be taken to mean "Seven Lands", which is [[Fridge Brilliance]] because the game contains exactly that.

* Google. Its usage as a verb has become so widespread that [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|it is now in the dictionary.]]

** Named after googol, which is also a neologism, and means 1.0 * 10^100, a one followed by a hundred zeroes and was invented by a 9-year-old girl. [[The Other Wiki]] has [[wikipedia:Googol|details]].

'''Ennesby''': Death is too good for this one. }}

* The term "''[[The Grinch|grinch]]''" has entered public lexicon thanks to ''[[How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (animation)|How the Grinch Stole Christmas]]''. The term means someone who hates a holiday (particularly Christmas), and tries to make it miserable for everybody else.

* ''[[The Simpsons]]'' has produced a number of neologisms which have come into varying degrees of common use. In particular, [[Retirony]] and [[Perfectly Cromulent Word]] are named for terms originating on the show, as well as the popular remark "Meh."

'''Troy Hammerschmidt:''' Neither is ''vaginacillin'', but that didn't stop you from using it as the title for your third album... or your fragrance line. }}

* People with various mental/neurological conditions and brain injuries are prone to forming neologisms of their own, which are often consistent enough that families and friends learn and use them. Examples of conditions where this could happen include autism, the aphasias, schizophrenia, post-stroke or brain-injury, and the various speech/language disorders. Typical toddlers, while learning to speak, may also form neologisms.

** Dan Savage also midwifed the verb form of Saddleback. '''saddleback''', ''v.'' To have anal sex in order to [[Technical Virgin|preserve one's virginity]]. [[Older Than Dirt|Historically practiced by pretty much everyone]].

*** Named after Rick Warren's Saddleback Church in Orange County.