WCW Episode 3: Author-Invented Words

It’s another Wednesday and another day for another episode of Word Crush Wednesday, and today, we’re discussing an interesting topic, the author invented words.

Have you found yourself in a situation where you’re reading a book or seeing a movie and you just come across a strange word? You tried looking it up in the dictionary but couldn’t find it. Even Google seems to be helpless in this case and you’re like, “this author is writing jargon”. 

Well, it might be jargon, it might not, whichever way, it is still a word. A meaningful one at that! But have you ever for once thought that maybe the author just craft the word? That makes sense, right?

From time to time, hundred of new words are being added to the dictionary. Many of these new words are words created by particular authors and become popular.

What Are Author Invented Word?

Author invented words or author created words are words (or phrases) that were first used and given their meaning by a particular author. This often occurs when authors join different root words – names of persons, names of places, syllables, foreign words, or ideas that no one has used before – together to make a new word. 

The new word, or phrase, as the case may be, is new and never existed. So the author defines it and gives it its meaning through its usage in the book or piece. And over time, it becomes popular and maybe, makes its way into the dictionary.

Example of Author Invented Words

There are a plethora of author-invented words that are pretty popular and commonly used in our day-to-day conversation. Many of them have been so popular that we do not even think of them as author-created words.

A practical example is “Laregnosis”. Of course, it’s a new word that was created to give a special meaning to a content category on this blog.

Well, that example seems to be unpopular, isn’t it? If you think so, have you read Chimamanda Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun? If yes, then you would have come across the phrase “Dark Swoops”.

“Dark swoops” is a phrase invented by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to describe Olanna’s condition after the horrifying scenes witnessed in the North. According to the author, the phrase explains her experience which involves a thick blanket descending from above and pressing itself firmly over Olanna’s face, making breathing difficult.

Whenever the blanket lifts and she was able to take in gulps of air, she’ll see burning owls grinning to her at the window and beckoning to her with charred feathers. This, according to the author, was very difficult for Olanna to explain to her husband.

There are countless other words that were invented by renowned authors and have made their way into our day-to-day conversation. Let’s see a few other author-invented words and their meaning.

Other Author Invented Words

Serendipity: This word was invented by Horace Walpole in his letter to a friend in 1754. The author of The Castle of Otranto used this word drawn from Serendib, an old name for Sri Lanka, to convey his exciting discovery in one of his journeys. Serendipity, today means a combination of natural events that turn out to be surprisingly good and wonderful.

Tween: Have you seen The Lords of the Rings franchise? Then you must have come across this word, or even heard it somewhere else. Well, the existence of this word owes its thanks to J.R.R. Tolkien. The author used this word first in The Fellowship of the Ring to describe a group of Hobbits that are not of age. 

According to him, Hobbits between the ages of 20 and 33 and tweens, and those above 33 and of age. Meanwhile, the meaning has changed in recent times to represent a group of young people between childhood and teenhood.

Nerd: I know you're probably picturing that brilliant but unsocial dude or girl in your class or workplace. Well, that’s not exactly how Dr. Seuss described this word when he first used it in his 1950 children’s book If I Ran the Zoo. 

To Dr. Seuss, nerd is one of the animals he would've collected for his imaginary zoo. But what happens when this word makes better meaning as an insult? Thanks to the occurrence at the 1970s sitcom Happy Days. The imaginary animal of Seuss now means a brilliant person that lacks social vibes.

Runcible spoon: Edward Lear never really had a particular meaning for “runcible” when he used it in The Owl and the Pussycat. In the same book, he also referenced “runcible hat”, “runcible cat”, “runcible goose”, and “runcible wall”. That's a whole lot of "runcibles", leaving you to wonder what he really meant. But examining the usage in this Lear's poem, a runcible spoon is now commonly used to refer to a grapefruit spoon, a spork, or a kind of flattened ladle.

Alligator: I know you're thinking of the 800-pound, scally amphibian reptiles. Well, you're right to think that way and it's all thanks to Williams Shakespeare. Although, a lot of people often argue that this word must have been derived from the Spanish term "el lagarto", Shakespeare first used this word in his romance fiction, Juliet and Romeo. It's all thanks to him that we don't call all large scaly reptiles Crocodile.

What Author Created Word do You Know?

While I've chosen to use these five examples, there are myriads of other words created by authors. What author-invented word have you come across that you'd love to share with us? Let's hear you in the comment section.