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I make up words.
Evidently I always have; my mom tells me that I used to say, “I amn’t,” as in “I amn’t going to the store”. Now I’ll compliment someone on the “go-iness” of their car, or “aromasticity” of the candle shop.
Stephen Colbert invented a word two or three years ago and it ended up being the word of the year – “truthiness”, as in “what you’re saying has a certain ring of truthiness to it”. I want one of my made-up words to end up in a dictionary somewhere, but most of them tend to be kind of silly. It’s just that there are certain words that don’t exist to describe certain things. While in my writing I’ll take the time to search for the closest word to what
I’m trying to say, in real life I’ll just say that my nephew is full of “leapiness”. You know, he’s so happy and excited that he can’t sit still.
Of course I’m not the only word maker-upper. Among many others, William Shakespeare made up tons of words, or combined existing words in completely new ways. “Assassination” is his. So are “invulnerable” and “jaded” and “champion”. He also coined one of my favorite words, “besmirched”, along with “lonely”, “submerge”, and “grovel”, “moonbeam”, and “eyeball”. Several of these words are vital to romance writing, 
which is just another reason I view the bard with such “awesogroveltude”.
Do you make up words? Do you have a particular word or phrase that you’ve made your own?
I probably have, but none that I can recall. They are obviously not going to be popular then. I love your word: awesogroveltude.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 4:31 am.
LOL – thanks, Mary!
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 12:12 pm.
I just made up the normal ones when I as little: fridger-frater for refrigerator and pisketti for spaghetti. I know I make up words now but none that I really use on a regular basis. It’s just that sometimes you can’t think of a word awesome enough to express what you are trying to say! I totally understand. I tend to be worse with grammar then with making things up though. I have been guilty of saying, “these ones,” before. UGH!
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 7:44 am.
Oh yes! My son has made up “Yesternight” as in “last night”. I love it and want everyone to use it daily.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 11:14 am.
Liz, I love “yesternight”! It sounds very Medieval.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 12:13 pm.
Worster is about the only word I made up. My son’s favorite was morebetter, as in pecan pie is morebetter than apple pie.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 7:46 am.
I think “morebetter” should be a real word — it describes something in one word, instead of several.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 12:14 pm.
most of my made-up phrases are proper or pious words strung together with swear words so I really can’t share them here.
.
it came with a Catholic upbringing. no one swears quite like a Catholic daddy.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 7:48 am.
LOL, Kathy. I have a couple of made-up swear words, too.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 12:17 pm.
I have ben known to make up words to best fit the situation. Most of the time, I couldn’t tell you if a word is real or not. If it seems right, I’m all for it! English isn’t really fluid enough anymore.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 8:14 am.
I like it, cail.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 12:20 pm.
As an ankle biter I used to call my pillow my bo and that’s about it really that I know of. Apparently the word MacGyver just missed being added to the dictionary which is a shame. A phrase that I use and have heard friends use is “full as a gook”, “hitting the frog and toad” and “belly aching’ “
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 8:30 am.
Both my nephews use/d “beebee” for blanket. All the adults still call them that.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 12:21 pm.
Fridginator is one… Shakespear was also pretty inventive in his spelling, including his name.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 8:48 am.
I like “fridginator”, Cate! *g*
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 12:23 pm.
LOL, nah. I have enough trouble with the ones that are already out there. More power to your amaranthine pursuit of words to further grow the english language.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 9:06 am.
Aw, thanks, Pesky. *g*
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 12:23 pm.
I don’t make up words, and when people aren’t grammatically correct, I wince. Comes with having an English teacher grandma with no sense of fun. So, made-up words weren’t allowed, either. I love hearing my kids as the develop their vocabularies. It is so cute to hear my son tell my daughter that she is being annoying from another room.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 9:06 am.
The thing I love about language is that it’s always changing and adapting. And I’m SO glad we aren’t still using “thee” and “thou”.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 12:27 pm.
We usually say ‘absotively posolutely’ when describing whether or not we are sure about something. Rather than ‘absolutely and positively.’ Usually the words that the hub makes up during football season are not fit for most to hear.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 9:25 am.
We use that too, Julie. It’s more emphatic than saying it the traditional way.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 12:28 pm.
My 2 year old daughter says amn’t all the time. ‘No I amn’t’ is one of her favourite sayings.
When I’m in a bad mood and people are getting on my last nerve I use the word stabby. As in ‘I am feeling stabby right now.’
I use jeepers creepers quite a bit, too.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 9:26 am.
Very cool, Amy! And I’m taking “stabby”. It’s very descriptive. *g*
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 12:28 pm.
Lol! Ah, the world of Enoch whimsy!
People think that I make up words, though often I’m just mispronouncing a word that’s already in existence. I read so many words and don’t get the chance to say them that when I do finally work them into a sentence, I put the stress on the wrong syllable or just mess up saying it in general.
So yes … and no. But I’m so using your “I amn’t.” That’s brilliant!
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 10:08 am.
Yes, I’m an entire amusement park. *g* Amn’t is all yours, Karen.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 12:32 pm.
It’s a running joke in the family that I loved to read so much growing up that there have been several words I had seen but never heard… hence the fact that I would pronounce “asylum” similarly to the way that you would pronounce “Aslan” from The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 1:53 pm.
Hey, did you know that amn’t used to be in common usage? I have it in an oooold dictionary from bygone days. Funny how words fall out of use and disappear. Kind of tragic, really.
I do make up words, often, and love doing it. Naturally, since you brought it up, my mind has gone BLANK.
My daughter, when she was a small tike, called the lazy susan the swingin’ suzie. We still call it that! I’d rather be a swingin’ suzie than a lazy susan any day.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 11:01 am.
I thought amn’t sounded very old-fashioned. And I’m afraid I can’t allow “swingin’ suzie” to be used in my household. I would never hear the end of it. *g*
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 12:33 pm.
LOL Suzanne! Yes, I do make up words but mostly by accident instead of wit. It usually happens when I mispronounce something like when I say, “How gwas your day?” Now we use “gwas” at times. I can’t remember any others right now, but it definitely happens around here.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 11:10 am.
I like “gwas”! It’s kind of a combo of was and going.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 12:34 pm.
I am forever mispronouncing words. The meaning and usage are correct, but I call it like I see it. DH is forever correcting me which used to annoy me, but now I just flip my hand and say, “Whatever”, or “yeah, that one”. So it probably sounds like I am making up words.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 11:22 am.
I still argue with my sisters about the way to pronounce “interesting”. They emphasize the “in”, and I like to emphasize “rest”.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 12:35 pm.
Hmm, it’s quite possible, but I can’t think of anything (sinus headache). My daughter, however, comes up with new words all the time. My favorite one – fruitarian. She came up with it because she can’t be a vegetarian since she doesn’t eat vegetables. Since she eats fruit and very little meat, fruitarian came into existence.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 11:46 am.
Janae, I think “fruitarian” has a good chance of ending up in a dictionary. It’s an awesome word!
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 12:35 pm.
I make words up all the time.. though I often forget them about an hour after I do.. which is sad, some are funny. :/
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 11:49 am.
I do too, Sheridan. They appear as needed and then vanish again.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 12:36 pm.
Weird that you should be talking about this, because this weekend my brothers and I were discussing new words they’d coined. Typical of men, they came up with things like “sextacular.” Yes, that was my brother’s big word. They also came up with “sloading” for when a website is taking forever to load. That one seems pretty useful to me. Hmmm.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 11:55 am.
Sabrina, I love “sloading”. I think I’m going to steal it.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 12:36 pm.
Me too.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 1:27 pm.
I make up words sometimes, especially with my little sister and sometimes with my friends. They are usually combinations or words or shortened words.
For instance, my friends and I refer to other people (less geeky, more “normal” people) as nilla people or “the nillas”, meaning vanilla or common. Another common term has been to say “Sweet action!” when someone does or says something really awesome or hilarious, only it has degenerated into “swaction!” So, now when someone comes in and says “I found $20 in the parking lot today!” some of us will say “Swaction!” without thinking about it.
We also tend to re-purpose existing words. For whatever reason, we got tired of using the word “cool,” and so over beers and a long night discussion, we adopted the word “crucial” in exchange so if something is extremely awesome, we refer to it as “crucial.” We also use “luscious” in the place of something very original and inspiring.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 12:01 pm.
Now that I think about it, after reading Sabrina’s “sextacular” and “sloading,” I can also say that whenever anybody gets laid or tells a sex story (some of the group are married/in serious relationships, some not), we refer to them as having earned “seXP” or “sexperience.” It’s a word combination and a reference to earning XP (experience points) from things like roleplaying games and video games.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 12:03 pm.
Crucial, Monica. *g*
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 12:37 pm.
When my son was a toddler he came up with the word Hilerical . He used it to describe something that he found hysterical and hilarious.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 12:13 pm.
I love it, Julie! Hilerical. I’m taking it. *g*
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 12:38 pm.
I make up words all the time. Both in English and in Portuguese. But, really, what I do the most is verb everything up. Like, turn everything into a verb. For exampled, by saying I “verb everything up”, I just verbed the substantive verb. Get it? I do it with everything, especially with people’s name. Instead of saying someone “pulled a Suzanne”, for example, I would say they just “Suzanned” that. Unfortunately, I’m not creative enough to make up irregular verbs, so, they’re all regular finished in ‘ed’, but it’s the thought that counts, right?
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 12:17 pm.
I tend to verb nouns and noun verbs too, B. It’s so fun. *g*
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 12:39 pm.
I make up words all the time. One of my favorites is “bendy.” As in, I am not. (Though, with the help of Pilates, I am becoming somewhat more bendy than a Barbie doll.)
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 12:22 pm.
Yes, Susan! “Bendy” is one of my favs. I think I stole it from Phoebe on “Friends”, and use it all the time. *g*
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 12:40 pm.
In our family we have a bunch of made up words : Odopidate = cooperate, pay-tensions-me = pay attention to me, cuppee = cup of coffee, refull = refill,fifi = pizza (no clue why), crunkly=difficult to move around, Frodo or Aunt Marge feet = degree of swelling in feet. I am sure I will think of more later but that’s enough to be going on with.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 12:40 pm.
Frodo feet! I love it. And “crunkly” has some definite potential. ;->
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 12:42 pm.
Frodo feet is for slightly swollen feet, Aunt Marge is for the truly out of control swelling; think Harry Potter, Aunt Marge.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 2:33 pm.
I tend to make up words when the idea comes to me faster than the actual noun. So I say “clicker thingy” for remote control. DH thinks that is a riot. Having started saying that, it is the word(s) that come fastest so it still is used by me. My youngest son had his own language for a while when he was a toddler. A car was a “brunta” for example. And of course there are kids’ cute words that we have adopted as the right word in our family. My older son called zucchini “biskini.”
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 1:26 pm.
And the good old lisping three year old standby — “basketti” for “spaghetti!”
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 2:01 pm.
I do that a lot, too. My family claims that I’ve used up my alloted words for the day when I’m writing, so I have to make do with what’s left. *g*
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 2:46 pm.
I do make up words. My current favorite is fantabulous. I am also partial to fandamntastic.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 1:39 pm.
I love both of those, Lori! I’m definitely stealing them.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 2:46 pm.
While I am not sure I have ever consciously or unconsciously made up a word, my oldest son used “amn’t” for a long time. I actually thought it was a sign of a logical mind. You aren’t, I amn’t seems logical if a little problematic to pronounce. Using surprising but descriptive adjectives and nouns was another interesting trait. The sickle moon was a “fingernail” moon and boogers were “fries.” Try and forget that one if you can.
I also have a friend who invents words. “Hoovering” instead of hovering is one of hers — invoking the old Hoover vacuum advertisement with a beach ball suspended in mid air by the power of the vacuum cleaner.
My own contribution would be more of a spoonerism — an odor arm deunderant. Pretty descriptive I think.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 1:45 pm.
Thanks a lot, Louise. *g* I do like fingernail moon.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 2:48 pm.
Making “new” words is a normal thing in this house. We used to call it mom-isms when the kids were little, but now we say the words are psycophonic…crazy words that work well in a sentence. They are generally descriptive words like ginormous, but we don’t limit ourselves by sticking with that rule.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 1:54 pm.
That’s awesome, amy. I love it!
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 2:49 pm.
I use made-up words a lot, but the level of their originality varies with the person I’m speaking to. Plus, I get a ton of them from the students I teach.
“Prettiful” is mine, but we use “just for shiggles” (so both I and the teenagers can use the phrase without swearing), and “no touchy-fieldy” to remind each other that we’re not allowed to set foot on the actual football field until a certain time.
One of my favorites comes from a friend of mine, but I’ll have to let your deduction skills figure it out. In the middle of the word “ridiculous” is a small word that could be considered a “bad” word. Replace that small word with a synonym, and now you have something that is BEYOND ridiculous.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 2:07 pm.
No touchy-fieldy – bwaa haa haa!
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 2:50 pm.
hmm that’s a bit difficult, because now I need to find an English translation for my words.
I often used (and do it again now) the word “wunderbarst” which you could maybe translate to “wonderfulst”, so “the most wonderful”. I just like the word and used it a few minutes ago.
Instead of goodbye I sometimes say “Tüdelü” and wave. I can’t tell you why I do this or where it comes from. Some day it was there. And the funny thing is that my best friend uses that phrase sometimes, so I made it stick in people’s heads.
(btw: Sorry for my English today, but I’ve been dealing with English poetry and propaganda during world war two in America hald the day, so I’m a bit wrung out)
Maybe I’ll think of some more words, but that are the ones I use most frequently.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 2:33 pm.
We use tudelu, too — I think it’s a French mash-up, but I’m doing page proofs today and my brain is too twisty-wisty to figure it out.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 2:52 pm.
When I first started taking French… much longer ago than I care to mention… I remember wondering if tudelu had come from “tout à l’heure”… literally “all to the time”, but more expressively “see you later”.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 3:03 pm.
I forgot to mention that I had adopted one that I heard on the radio a few years ago just because it was funny. One of the local DJ’s had a young daughter at the time that was really getting the hang of vocabulary, and she would always say that something made her ‘nermis’ rather than nervous. I thought that was cute, so we use that one a lot.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 2:59 pm.
I’m nermis — it’s like a name and a condition, all at the same time. *g*
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 5:43 pm.
I am laughing as I read these, they are so funny! Suzanne, you would get on get with my DH, although none of the rest of us would have a clue what you are saying.
He makes up words, or uses them so incorrectly, that we call them “Shawnisms” and have actually had betting contests over them. My DH will swear up and down it’s a word, then my mom and I bet him that he is wrong -once the bet is solid, we head for the computer and look it up. His track record is abysmal. It’s pretty funny, b/c his standard come back is “Well, it COULD have been a word!” Hahahaha…
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 4:47 pm.
I try to get away with it when playing Scrabble all the time. No one trusts me anymore. Sigh. *g*
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 5:43 pm.
I know I make up words, but obviously can´t remember a single one at the moment. And translating them from dutch really doesn´t make any sense.
The kids are doing the same. At the moment Phineas and Ferb are a big hit so we get a lot of -enators. Trainenator, homeworkenator, funenator. You get the picture
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 5:20 pm.
So THAT’s where it’s coming from. I had no idea why everything was enator all of a sudden. Thanks, Alie — I thought I was just going crazy.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 5:45 pm.
You´re welcome
No not going crazy, if you watch Phineas and Ferb a lot, you might tho *g*
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 6:00 pm.
Back in the mid ’80′s, there was a show on HBO called Not Necessarily the News. They had a segment called “Sniglets” that produced “Words that should be in the dictionary, but aren’t.” We still use several of those words today . . .
Words like:
Musquirt – The water that comes out of the initial squirts of a squeeze mustard bottle.
Pediddel – A car with only one working headlight (my BIL’s fave).
Beelzebug – Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your bedroom at 3 in the morning and cannot be cast out.
Destinesia – When you go somewhere, then upon arrival, forget why you went there.
Detruncus – The embarrassing phenomenon of losing one’s bathing shorts while diving into a swimming pool.
and the medical phenomenon that seems to pervade the females in my family – Chestus Magneticus – The messier the soup or stew, the greater the odds that it will land on your chest, especially if you are wearing a light colored top and are trying to eat carefully. I don’t think I have a shirt in my closet that hasn’t been bombed with sauce or soup at one time or another right between Thelma and Louise!!
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 6:21 pm.
Omg, ladydawgfan! I’d forgotten about “Not Necessarily the News”! I used to love that show. I remember one episode where you could rent your own orchestra to follow you around and provide appropriate theme music. *g*
We still use Chestus Magneticus in our house. And I love Beelzebug. Bwaa haa haa!!
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 7:28 pm.
Another phrase we use here is “galloping woo-woo” = beyond crazy.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 8:37 pm.
LMAO! My husband just reminded me that one of the ones that cracked us up was when he used “re-combobulate”. As in the opposite of discombobulate. Hahahaha!
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 9:07 pm.
I LOVE making up words! I refer to the “hooverability” of my current manuscript to denote exactly how much it sucks! I’m working on giving myself permission to write crap in the hope it will speed up my writing. Thus the birth of “hooverability.”
The “dogervision” factor is the number of dogs it takes to supervise any of my daily activities, i.e. taking a shower, brushing my teeth, going to the restroom, cooking a meal, or unloading the contents of any bag that makes that Walmart rattle.
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 11:11 pm.
I like to twist words around. Like “destructions” for “instructions.” I am kind of brain dead and can’t think of any words I’ve actually made up. But I am going to start now that I know it’s permissible
Posted on November 22, 2011 at 12:05 am.
My son used to get frinkles if he stayed in the bathtub too long
Posted on November 22, 2011 at 3:13 am.
LOL…oh gees. I can’t remember all the words I’ve made up. I think it’s something to do with my short term memory problems…LOL. Ya know that dohicky thingy or how about the thingamabobit. Of course being from the country we always made up words (can you say redneck anyone). I love some of the words the kids made up because they couldn’t pronounce something.
Posted on November 22, 2011 at 6:00 am.
My son made up the word “snat” when he was 2. It’s how you cut food with the side of your fork. We’ve kept using it since, and he’s 16 now!
Posted on November 23, 2011 at 9:28 pm.
‘ Puketer’ (computer) made it into our vocabulary from our youngest son’s treasure trove. We add “osityness” to a great many words so you could have “sneakosityness” for someone sneaking up behind you – they have a lot of sneakosityness….for example. We like to use our playfulosityness sometimes.
Posted on February 16, 2012 at 4:28 am.