Perfectly Cromulent Word: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

{{quote|'''Mrs. Krabappel''': [[Lampshade Hanging|"Embiggens"? I never heard that word before I moved to Springfield.]]<br />

 

A character quotes a seemingly made-up word that no one has ever heard of before then. This is usually a word the writer just made up, but is occasionally a real obscure, archaic, or obsolete word; for instance, 400 years before we had computers, we had ''email'', which is a raised or embossed image pressed into metal.

* Koodo Mobile's newest ad campaign centers around made-up words of varying levels of cromulence, such as "Thumbactionist", "Tabrific", "Bigbillification", and other things that sound like they came out of an ad campaign in [[Nineteen Eighty-Four|1984]].

** A few years ago, a car ad in the UK was very similar, but exclusively picked two (often opposed) words, and mashed them together- "Sporty" and "Safe" became "Spafe", for instance. [[Top Gear|Richard Hammond]] deemed this to be a load of [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|shiny and bright]].

{{quote| "That isn't a real word!" <br />

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

** ''[[Chitty Chitty Bang Bang]]'' used "phantasmagorical" in a similar way, although that word actually dates to the turn of the 19th century.

* In [[Woody Allen]]'s ''[[Husbands and Wives]]'', Rain admits she couldn't find a word to describe a character, so she made one up ("epucious").

* From ''[[Kung Pow]]''

{{quote| '''The Chosen One:''' Killing is bad. And wrong. There should be a stronger word for killing, like BADWRONG, or BADONG. Yes, killing is BADONG. From now on I shall stand for the opposite of killing; GNODAB.}}

'''Bessie''': No, ma'am, now!<br />

'''Susan''': But Bessie, I feel absolutely [[Not a Morning Person|sklonklish]]. }}

 

== [[Literature]] ==

** Also used in the short story ''La inmiscusión terrupta'' from ''Historias de Cronopios y de Famas''.

* The book ''[[Frindle]]'' is based completely around the protagonist making up a new word and trying to make it catch on. It means "pen."

** An even better example is "non-euclidean". It is a perfectly normal word referring to [[wikipedia:Non-Euclidean geometry|geometry]] and not at all related to [[Eldritch Abomination|sanity-breaking monster from beyond the stars]].

* In that it ''was'' a word before its popularization, albiet with a different meaning, J. K. Rowling's use of the word "[[Muggles]]" in ''[[Harry Potter]]'' fits here. Having said that, "Muggle" became one of the more important terms in the series' mythology, as opposed to being a throwaway gag.

** Another good one from ''The Shadow of the Torturer'': Fuligin. It's a color blacker than black. So [[Spinal Tap|there is one more black.]]

* [[Roald Dahl]]'s BFG. And how! (By the way, don't try the snozzcumbers.)

** In the German translation, this word was "Spunk", which isn't a ''German'' word. In English it's "spink".

* Spinfer, Falshed's smarmy [[Hypercompetent Sidekick]] in ''[[Welkin Weasels]]'', was described as "smooling" into a room. The narrator gives this a [[Lampshade Hanging]] with: "This is not a real word, but describes the action perfectly."

* ''[[Redwall]]'''s babies and toddlers are known as "Dibbuns". Brian Jacques was asked if this was an actual British regional slang term, and he said that it's actually just a nonsense word which sounded appropriately cute.

* 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.

 

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

{{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.<br />

'''Blackadder:''' Every single one, sir?<br />

** Oh, and Blackadder mentions another Johnson forgot: [[Call Back|"aardvark"]].

** "I shall return...interfrastically."

** Mandy somehow manages to [[Springtime for Hitler|find a packet of them anyway]]. Mandy had to go down to the ethnic district to find them however.

* ''[[Friends]]'':

** 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.

* ''[[You Have Been Watching]]'':

{{quote| '''Charlie Brooker''': I used up every negative word known to man to describe John Barrowman's 'Tonights the Night' so when 'Totally Saturday' came along I was forced to invent the word 'Shittifying'}}

** Also, "[[Getting Crap Past the Radar|Whuck...?]]" from Liz.

*** Another one from Liz: snert, a simultaneous sneeze and fart.

* ''[[The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee]]'' combines this with [[Schrodinger'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.

 

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

{{quote| '''Qui the Promoter:''' This is turning out to be an excellent day. Most austipacatious indeed!<br />

'''[[Player Character|Spirit Monk]]:''' "Austi..." Don't you mean "auspicious?"<br />

* This is the source of a running gag in ''[[Fable]] II.'' You see, it turns out that there's a new thesaurus being published in Albion...

* Oghren in [[Dragon Age|the Awakening expansion for Dragon Age: Origins]] does this in the course of drunkenly thanking the Warden Commander for saving him in combat: "There was that guy, and he was all 'Rrrrr!' and I was 'Hrrr!' and then I got hit by an arrow. Then I fell over, and it was 'meep!' But you were there and you were all 'Roaarr!' Ha! Spectaculous!" To which the PC may choose to respond "That's not even a word!"

* [[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!]]''

 

 

== Web Animation ==

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

 

 

== Web Original ==

* In one article for [[Cracked]], Michael Swaim coins the term "presturbating" - the act of masturbating to the porn that gets you horny enough to watch the porn that ''really'' gets you off, because you're dead inside. (It can also mean "masturbating a priest".)

* In the [[Slender Man Mythos|Slenderfandom]], people will often affix "Slender" to the beginning of Slenderman-related words. Also, it's common to refer to [[Buffy-Speak|that thing he does when he's not really doing anything but he's really scary for some reason]] as "slendering around".

 

* [http://www.nuklearpower.com/2005/06/23/episode-567-paralinguistics/ This] ''[[8-Bit Theater (Webcomic)|8-Bit Theater]]'', which comes complete with the definition of one of the words.

* Yeager in ''[[Nodwick]]'' managed to invent an Eighth Deadly Sin - which he duly termed Blasphotrociterra-o-rama.

* ''[[Order of the Stick]]'' gives us [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0127.html this] biollorky example.

{{quote| '''Ben Franklin''': Yes. There is a law that means I may have just committed dukeicide.<br />

'''Alt Text''': Dukeicide is not a real word. }}

 

== Western Animation ==

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

*** Embiggen is not.

** They also gave us ''quijibo'': A fat, balding, North American ape with no chin (and a short temper)."

{{quote| '''Spongebob''': Patrick, I don't think Wumbo is a real word...<br />

'''Patrick''': Come on... you know! I wumbo. You wumbo. He- she- me... wumbo. Wumbo; Wumboing; We'll have the wumbo; Wumborama; Wumbology: the study of Wumbo. It's first grade, Spongebob!<br />

'''Spongebob:''' We've been smeckledorfed!<br />

'''Mr. Krabs:''' That's not even a word, and I agree with ya! }}

* ''[[The Critic]]'': Duke Phillips pays Webster's Dictionary to include the word "quzybuk" (meaning "a big problem") in order to [[Kwyjibo|win a game of Scrabble]]. He also paid them to add the word "dukelicious." When he learns that nobody's using it, he mutters "What a duketastrophe."

** In a late scene, a scientist refers to a situation as [[Strange Minds Think Alike|"a real quzybuk".]]

{{quote| '''Joey Mousepad:''' What if management remains intragnisant?<br />

'''Donbot:''' From the context, it is clear what you mean. }}

** [[Don't Explain the Joke|This is because]] it sounds similar to "Intransigent", a real word meaning "inflexible" or "uncompromising".

* Happens a lot with the Duke of Zill in the ''[[Felix the Cat]]'' movie. He called. His servant. A numcrut.

{{quote| '''Peter Griffin:''' A degenerate, am I? Well you're fastezio! See, I can make up words too!.}}

* An entire episode of ''[[Recess]]'' revolves around T.J. making up a new word ("whomp", as in, "Man, this whomps!"). He is punished, because most of the adults assume it must be a 'bad' (dirty) word. In truth, he made up the word as a minced oath so he wouldn't get in trouble anymore. After a good deal of irony and courtroom antics, it's decided that the word is up to anyone's interpretation since it was made up, and "Those who think it has a dirty meaning probably have dirty minds to begin with."

{{quote| "Yzmopolis, There's no Stopolis!" "Hey that's not a word" "It is to me!"}}

* Happened in an episode of ''[[Garfield and Friends]]'', where the Buddy Bears try to make the show more educational by interrupting an otherwise "normal" episode to provide trivia on anything that came up in conversation. Irritated, Garfield asked them what they knew about "gazorninplats", and after they're unable to find any information on it, they give up and leave. It backfired at the end of the episode, when G&F was "cancelled" for ''The Gazorninplat Hour''.

** In part 2 of ''Snow Wade and the 77 Dwarves'', Roy is refusing to kiss Snow Wade so she wakes up, but then reads the story and is happy to do it because he learned he gets "20 million gazortniks".

{{quote| '''Roy''': I don't know what a gazortnik is, but 20 million of ''anything'' makes ya filthy rich! }}

** Gets a bit of a [[Call Back]] in season 2 premiere "[[My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic (Animation)/Recap/S2 E1 The Return of Harmony Part 1|The Return of Harmony, Part 1]]", when the Cutie Mark Crusaders have this exchange (for added fun, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle are Applejack and Rarity's respective little sisters):

{{quote| '''Applebloom:''' Cool! ... If you were actually ''victory-ful'' at something.<br />

* Look up back formations on [[The Other Wiki]]. Prepare to have your conception of correct usage self-destructinate.

* The word "ablexxive" started this way, with a middle-school student making it up and putting it on a vocab quiz.

* Former President George W. Bush was absolutely ''renowned" for this.

* Many Internet captchas use these kinds of words, especially those from Google and ReCaptcha (which, in the latter case, are always accompanied by a perfectly normal word).