The Enjoyfulness of Made-Up Words

Not to get overly self-promotional, but in a recent newsletter I shared that one of my clients – whose first language isn’t English – had used the word “enjoyful” during a conversation.

“Enjoyful” isn’t a ‘proper’ word, I said (because I had to really, didn’t I?)  But I liked it, and now I use it myself.

After I sent that newsletter, I received a snow-flurry (snurry?) of replies from people who were eager to tell me their own made-up words.   “My partner and I have a few of these,” went one.  “Troublem” – trouble + problem – is one of them.  But sometimes they slip out when I’m talking with others, and they have no idea what I’m saying!”

This particular email reminded me of an incident from my early childhood.

Cue swirling mists of time…

My mum, who was an aficionado of the silly made-up word, had unthinkingly asked me to go and get a packet of squigglers from the corner shop.

“Squigglers” was her word for “hairbands”.  It always had been, and I was too young to know it wasn’t real.   So when I asked the man behind the counter for a packet of squigglers, and he gave me a quizzical look, I thought he was stupid.

Gingerly, this bewildered shopkeeper held out a packet of Rizlas, which is a brand of tobacco-rolling papers, instead.  (I assume he did this because “Rizla” was the only thing in his shop that sounded anything like “squiggler”.)

I took the packet and paid, thinking that maybe you were supposed to make your own squigglers out of the Rizla papers.  But when I got home, everybody laughed at me.

After I replayed that weird little moment from my life, I cringed, and then I wondered:

Do all relationships have their own unique vocabulary of made-up words?

They don’t necessarily have to be romantic relationships.  For example, I called my cat “cutiful” – cute + beautiful – the other day, because the word just seemed to suit him.  My nan always used to call snacks “snashters”, which is a word my sisters and I still use when we’re entertaining.

The reason I mention all this linguistic flibbery is simple: it’s nice to be reminded every now and again that words and language can be fun.

Especially when it seems there’s a pedant lurking around every corner, and especially when a lot of people I chat with about writing tell me they’d “love to write a book, but I don’t think my English is good enough.”

(Just for the record: it doesn’t have to be.  That’s what proofreaders and editors are for!)

“Only to a dullard is language a means of communication and nothing more.  It would be like saying sex is a means of reproduction and no more, and food a means of fuelling and no more.” (Stephen Fry, Don’t Mind Your Language)

A few years ago, I took an improvised comedy course.  One of the games we played involved someone making up a word on the spot, and their game-partner having to invent a definition for it.

You can’t not laugh when you’re playing this game.  I wholeheartedly recommend it.

And who knows: you could invent a word that passes into everyday lexicon.  To inspire you, here’s a list of a few everyday words Shakespeare came up with, and a few more frabjous words from Lewis Carroll.

The page is yours, so get wribbling!

(If you’ve got any made-up words to share, I’d love to hear them.

And if you’d like an opportunity to make up some new words and write them down in a safe, supportive online space…

…my Wondrous Writing Hub course begins again on 7^th September.)