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New words from noncelebrity neologizers

Ideas | The Word

THIS STORY APPEARED IN

January 22, 2012|By Erin McKean

- (istockphoto; Globe Staff…)

Why do some new words take off — even unlikely ones, such as Tebowing — and some fail? Neologism expert Allan Metcalf, the executive secretary of the American Dialect Society, gives five factors by which to judge the success of a new word: what he calls the FUDGE scale. FUDGE stands for “frequency of use” (more use means a higher chance of success), “unobtrusiveness” (is it too jokey?), “diversity of users and situations” (is it used by a lot of different people?), “generation of other forms and meanings” (can you verb it?), and “endurance of the concept.” (So maybe, after last weekend, Tebowing won’t be a long-lived term after all.)

For an ordinary person who wants to coin a new word, the most difficult of the hurdles are those involving popularity: How do you get a new word out there? When famous folks create a new word, we notice. A favorite from the past year was a new unit of time measurement, the Kardash — a period of 72 days, aka the length of Kim Kardashian’s marriage — coined by none other than Weird Al Yankovich. “Jersey Shore” star Snooki got attention for using the quasi-word volumptuous (most likely a blend of voluptuous and lump, but with Snooki, who can be sure?) on the Jimmy Kimmel show. But words used by less-prominent individuals tend to be unfairly overlooked.

To help level the playing field for noncelebrity neologizers (those who create new words) everywhere, I recently put out a call on Twitter, asking for submissions of favorite new words. And, based on the rich haul of responses I received, there are plenty of new words that just need a little public relations boost to take hold.

Some new words make you wonder how you lived without them. Why call something just super when you could use Baheru Mengistu’s superbulon? Who hasn’t encountered the unpleasant practice of nukepicking, the combination of nitpicking and blowing things out of proportion, submitted by Vlad Marian Birladianu? I plan to be a frequent user of Andrea Hert’s estiknow, to assert that you’re 90 percent sure of something (“It’s two steps above ‘guesstimate,’” she says.)