Neologism: Difference between revisions

* In 1995, Conan O'Brien was looking for a word to [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|outwit the censors]]. He came up with the word "Crunk." Ice-T used the word several times during the broadcast. Nowadays, there's barely a rapper alive that doesn't have "crunk" in his vocabulary...and there's now even an [[Crunkcore|entire genre of music]] named after it...

* As discussed on an episode of ''[[QI]]'', the sketch show ''Not the Nine O'Clock News'' once used "flange" as the collective noun for gorillas -- as in "a pride of lions," "a pod of dolphins," "a flange of gorillas." It was just a joke, [[Captain Obvious|such as you might expect from a comedy show]], but apparently some people took it at face value and the term has been adopted by academics, but to refer to baboons. The collective noun for gorillas is congress.

'''Rich Hall:''' The Pentagon. }}

* On ''Not Necessarily the News'', Rich Hall created a segment which encouraged viewers to write in examples. The segment was called "Sniglets," which was defined as "Words that should be in the dictionary but aren't." Some examples include

* Much like the "flange of baboons" example above, RPGMP3 is attempting to popularize "shower" as the collective term for a group of bastards.

** Perhaps after this exchange in an episode of ''[[Father Ted]]''?

'''Father Dougal''': A shower of bastards. }}

** 'Shower' is common Irish slang.

* 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."

** Don't forget "[[Jerkass]]!"

*** Note that the Wiktionary link for "embiggens" dates the coinage at 1884: the Simpsons merely popularized it.

** To say nothing of "D'oh!", which is in the Oxford English Dictionary. Misspelled, no less! The correct spelling is "(ANNOYED GRUNT)". The Simpson's use of "D'oh" wasn't new. It was a copy of James Finlayson's usage of the term. For those who don't recognise the name, Finlayson was a friend of Stan Laurel and frequent actor in [[Laurel and Hardy]] films -- usually as the moustachioed antagonist. He introduced both "D'oh" and the [[Double Take]] to comedy film.

* [[Titan Maximum]]'s "replacement", Titan Megamum.

'''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. }}

 

* In 2004, George W. Bush referred to "the Internets" in a presidential debate. In 2006, Alaska senator Ted Stevens defined the internet as "a series of tubes." Today, "the tubes of the internets" -- sometimes shortened to "the intertubes" -- is a [[Perfectly Cromulent Word|perfectly cromulent expression]] in some circles, and has even been used by the ''[[Myth Busters]]''.

* The word ''blurb'' originated in 1907. American humorist Gelett Burgess's short 1906 book ''Are you a bromide?'' was presented in a limited edition to an annual trade association dinner. The custom at such events was to have a dust jacket promoting the work and with, as Burgess' publisher B. W. Huebsch described it:

** In this case the jacket proclaimed "YES, this is a 'BLURB'!" and the picture was of a (fictitious) young woman "Miss Belinda Blurb" shown calling out, described as "in the act of blurbing." The name and term stuck for any publisher's contents on a book's back cover, even after the picture was dropped and only the complimentary text remained.

* Gerrymander (v) - to improve prospects for re-election by tampering with electoral boundaries or populations. Named after one such redrawing by Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry in 1812, resulting in one particularly convoluted constituency that resembled a salamander. It was then referred to as the "Gerrymander" by the ''Boston Centinel''.