Perfectly Cromulent Word: Difference between revisions

A type of [[Neologism]], of which [[Scrabble Babble]] is a subtrope. Some examples are another form of [[Malaproper]]. See also [[Delusions of Eloquence]] and [[Informed Obscenity]] aka [[Snugglebunnies]].

 

 

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== [[Advertising]] ==

{{quote|"That isn't a real word!"

"It came out of my mouth, didn't it?" }}

 

* Skank Zero Hopeless-Savage's (of the ''[[Hopeless Savages]]'' comic series) vocabulary is comprised of many of these. Luckily, there is a glossary in the back of the collected volume (as Zero says "some of my best words are friends.") Swerval.

 

== [[Film]] ==

* Edward Lear invented the adjective "runcible" to provide extra syllables in his poetic writings. "Runcible spoon" (from "The Owl and the Pussycat") is now defined in dictionaries.

 

* [[Blackadder]] trying to confuse the writer of <s>the first</s> a well-known dictionary:

{{quote|'''Dr. [[Samuel Johnson]]:''' [places two manuscripts on the table, but picks up the top one] Here it is, sir. The very cornerstone of English scholarship. This book, sir, contains every word in our beloved language.

** In an earlier episode, Chandler, bemoaning his pickiness with women, once mentioned he broke up with a girl for (mis)pronouncing a word, "supposebly" (meant to be "supposedly".) The incorrect version seems to stick with Joey, though.

* In ''[[Will and Grace]]'', Grace says "I'm spramped if I do, I'm spramped if I don't!" and Jack corrects her on her usage. This is a reference to Jack's [[Kwyjibo]] earlier in the episode.

* In a ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' sketch, the word "splunge" is coined by frightened screenwriters to provide temporary respite from tyrannical Hollywood producer Irving C. Saltzberg. It means, "It's a great idea, but possibly not, and I'm not being indecisive!"

* In a ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' sketch parodying ''[[Inside The Actors Studio|Inside the Actor's Studio]]'', Will Ferrell (impersonating James Lipton) describes an actor's performance as so great that no word in English can do it justice, and that he must invent a new word right now to properly convey its greatness: ''Scrumtrulescence''. The performance was ''scrumtrulescent''.

** The word "ass-tastic" is apparently common in their magazine.

* ''[[Look Around You]]'': Spoofs the wealth of jargon found in the world of science by making up a host of new words, including fictitious chemicals ("bumcivilian", "segnomin"), laboratory equipment ("Besselheim plate", "gribbin"), units of measurement ("billigram", "quorums per second") and many more.

** George Martin coined the same word as a humorous way of describing a recording technique to [[The Beatles]]. The technique in question is that of dubbing a track with a version of itself delayed a few milliseconds, so that different frequencies either cancel or reinforce themselves. This also plays with the brain's mechanism for locating the source of sounds, giving it an interesting psychedelic flavour that the Beatles liked. The effect is still known as "flange".

*** The effect was in use before The Beatles (though can't say for sure it wasn't Martin who named it). In those days was to set up two identical recordings on two different machines and play them in perfect sync. One then touched the outside edge of one of the tape reels to set one of the machines ever so slightly out of synch. As a flange is an older word used to mean the outer edge of something, it is thus an entirely legitimate use of the term. Presumably it was used as rimming sounded too rude even then.

** Mind you, "flange" is a very real and perfectly ordinary word. They're just using it in an unconventional way.

* ''[[Veronicas Closet|Veronica's Closet]]'': One of the characters makes up the word "acribitzed" (synonym for "went up" or "increased"), then drops it in an article hoping that it will take off. It does.

** There's also the word "gazzizza". It's kind of like a street "aloha"

* On its inaugural show, ''[[The Colbert Report]]'' created and defined the word "truthiness" (defining reality by what feels in your gut like it should be true, rather than what is actually true.) which went on to become a runaway hit, starting with getting chosen as the American Dialect Society's Word of the Year for 2005. Some of its popularity was almost certainly because of its usefulness in describing the policies of the then-current administration.

* ''[[The Vicar of Dibley]]'': Jim and Frank come over, interrupting Geraldine's rendezvous with David's brother ([[It's a Long Story|long story]]). They have a crossword question. She makes up the word "ploddipop" to get them out of the house.

 

* The [[Steve Miller Band]] speaks of the [[wikipedia:Pompatus|pompatus]] of love in "The Joker."

** Interestingly, the term may have been borrowed from The Medallions' "The Letter", which mentioned "the ''puppetudes'' of love" (and also coined the term "pizmotality").

* Lampshaded as [[MC Frontalot]] acknowledges that "possibleness is not a cromulent word" in "Nerdcore Rising."

* [[Bon Iver]] has the title of "Flume" (which is an obscure word referring to a river or waterfall) as well as 'fide' and 'fane' from "Perth."

 

== [[New Media]] ==

* Done in a c-span type episode of ''[[The Onion]]'' where a senator starts to use the word "Pronk" in his vocabulary (It's supposed to be used in the positive, as in "These pancakes were pronking delicious!"). [[Hilarity Ensues]] when said senator replaces 95 percent of his vocabulary with pronk.

* Blogger/humorist [[James Lileks]] is known for popularizing "contrude". An example from [[The Bleat]] - May 1997- "Don't contrude with my train of thought, I'm on to something here"

 

== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==

* One ''[[Get Fuzzy]]'' strip from an arc about their new manager had said manager use the words "Dinnerfy" and "Eatification" to describe eating.

 

* ''[[The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee]]'' combines this with [[Schrödinger's Gun]]: a few audience members are selected to compete in the eponymous bee. Most of the words they get are real, but these tend to be thrown out when the play needs to declare a spelling correct/incorrect regardless of the spelling the audience member attempts.

* [[Shakespeare]] is famous for this. Google it. Of course, there is some argument as to whether he was the first to use the words, or simply the first to write them down. Due to the vast number of words he "made up," it seems likely that it's some of both. Due to his creativity with the language, he has had perhaps more influence on English than any other individual.

* The ''[[Wicked (theatre)|Wicked]]'' musical has a number of these being used by corrupt headmistress/press secretary Madame Morrible, including "definish" (as in "definite"...ish), "braverism" and "surreptitially". This [[The Barnum|suits her character]] well.

** Also from [[Wicked (theatre)|Wicked]], G(a)linda gives us confusifying. Yep. Confusifying.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* [[Sly Cooper|The Murray]] hopes you were not harmed by his meteoropic entrance, for the [[Signature Move|Thunder Flop]] knows neither friend nor foe, only ''[[Large Ham|destruction!]]''

 

* Characters in the ''[[Homestar Runner]]'' seem to make up a good portion their language on the fly. The bizarre thing is it's [[It Makes Sense in Context|usually perfectly clear]] what they mean even when the words are completely random (e.g. "This electricity bill is ''pretendous!'').

** Strong Bad even contemplated making an entire dictionary "fo' his own words".

 

* This is part of Marcus' schtick in ''[[1/0]]'', with a dash of [[Delusions of Eloquence]].

* [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2003/12/10 This] ''[[Penny Arcade]]'' has two examples, one of which is from [[Real Life]].

'''William Wotcherclaws:''' Forgive us! We were all too slorddly, master! }}

 

 

* ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' is of course the trope namer.

** The word biggen, however, is a real word, dating back to 1643.

* From [[Young Justice]] Robin {{spoiler|1/Nightwing}} is fond of taking the prefixes off of words to make new ones. His favourite is "whelmed": what you get when you're neither overwhelmed or underwhelmed. The fandom has embraced it whole-heartedly.

 

* An old joke: "Be alert! Your country needs lerts!"

** Another Joke: "Boy to girl: Do you like Kipling? Girl to boy: I don't know, I've never kippled"

 

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