Do you make up words that seem more appropriate than the real words?

[Mia]

Sometimes, I'll make up words that seem to sound better to me than the actual words for things. Often they are rhythmical in nature.

When I was a child I gave things in the home, their own names, that sounded better than the actual words, which at times I found hard to say.

So, for example burners on a stove became 'rounders,' pet rabbits became 'bounders.' Even siblings names were changed to become easier to say. People might think of them as nicknames.

Have you or did you create words that seem more appropriate to you? Or do you call things by other names?

 

[Tom]

All the time. Sometimes it is by ignorant accident, most times just by experiment. I find words & word history interesting so it is something of a hobby. I recently heard someone inadvertently (English was not their first language) make up the word 'passionated'. I found it both humorous and worth using. The birth of words (often slang), and why some spread and others do not is curious. I liked Laurie Anderson's idea that language is a virus. Something explored in the really well done Canadian zombie movie 'Ponty Pool'.

 

[Crossbreed]

I often do.

I named eleven babies, inventing/re-appropriating some of those names.

My hobby of 1:6 scale miniaturism was once sharply divided along genre lines, like:

• fashion,
• domestic [doll housing],
• military, &
• pulp adventure.

Collectors like me wanted to create in other genres, like:

• superhero,
• sci-fi,
• medieval,
• cross-genre, etc.

So we repurposed items from all of the established genres above to do so. Each of those genres had their own jargon/terminology that sometimes didn't work well in cross-over collecting, so I invented many of my own terms for that purpose (as did others).

 

[Judge]

Oddly enough for whatever reason when I read this I thought of someone like comedian Norm Crosby whose shtick is using malapropisms. Deliberate use of the wrong word for the purpose of humor. And sportscaster Dizzy Dean who often used terms he probably invented on the spot while commenting on baseball games in progress.

Though in my own case I often manage to use more complex words than is probably necessary. But I suspect they can be found in a dictionary- most of the time.

One thing I always wonder about is that the English language tends to lack effective "flavoring particles" found in other languages. Which may prompt some folks to simply improvise in various ways to achieve similar results in terms of communicating to others. Hey...if it works, why not?

 

[Crossbreed]

Though in my own case I often manage to use more complex words than is probably necessary.

That means that you probably don't have hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia, then.

 

[Judge]

That means that you probably don't have hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia, then.

Probably not. Sounds like "Lucy" rolling off psychiatric terms. But if there was an acronym for it I might use that instead.

Though I like the use of acronyms in German. Instead of having to say "Reichsicherheitshauptamt", I can say "RSHA". Und so weiter...

LOL...though such things are hardly for regular conversation. Oh yeah, I'm on the spectrum. I don't do regular conversation to begin with. Problem solved!

 

[Pats]

This is all interesting - and I love @Tom passionated. It's interesting to me because I have tried to invent a new word and just can't. I do have an imagination and am creative, so I don't think it's that. I don't know if it has to do with not being able to talk until I took speech lessons in second grade - maybe I was taught this is the rules for speaking and I stick to rules. Not saying I never go over the speed limit - I find it hard to stay within the speed limit. So I guess it's my own personal rules that I stick to and maybe words are one of them. I love words - I loved English in school - diagramming sentences and spelling and writing - which I think is a fair replacement for Math for an aspie male. But I love to hear other made up words and think they're fun - I liked the sea gull on Little Mermaid with all his names for the different treasures. I can repeat a made up word, just can't make any of my own, and I have tried.

 

[Loren]

I'm not sure it's the same thing, but, I do this with song lyrics.

 

[Pats]

Oh - just wanted to add - you can see my lack of word change from my user name. lol

 

[Nervous Rex]

I guess I do, given that I just posted in another thread about using "ramboling" (a portmanteau of gamboling and rambling), to mean "energetically jumping from one topic to another."

I love all forms of wordplay, and mashing up words is all sorts of fun.

 

[Bolletje]

I am an avid amateur neologism artist .

 

[Loren]

I enjoy others 'wordplay', but, I am horrible at it, myself. I wonder of this would be in line with being overly, literal. Which, I tend to be.

 

[Streetwise]

my way is to replace English with Hebrew ,if I'm certain of the meaning and I think because I'm English and my mother studied English literature ,it's made me realise everyone is unique in the way they use words .The English you speak and a large percentage of people speak is legal English invented in the 1750s , ?no wonder we change the words as it was only really designed for documents !not for conversations ,in my opinion it ruined conversation ,for instance people say the word an orange! but the word was actually a norange ,legal English is forced on Old English speakers ,which I imagine would've been stressful ,especially as the United Kingdom has a high percentage of autistic people ,even saying the United Kingdom is stressful for me ,Great Britain makes more sense .

 

[Nervous Rex]

I'm not sure it's the same thing, but, I do this with song lyrics.

Like make up alternate lyrics for words (a.k.a. contrafactum)?

One of my favorite songs to do this to is December by Collective Soul. During the bridge, when they start singing, "December promise you gave unto me, December whispers of treachery..." I can sing the words to My Favorite Things to it ("Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens..."). One time we were riding in a car with my sister-in-law and that song was on, so I started singing My Favorite Things to it. My sister-in-law turned to my wife and said, "Wow. Rex knows all the words to this." My wife said, "No, he doesn't. Listen to what he's saying."

 

[Tom]

I am an avid amateur neologism artist .

Well stay with it, and one day you might even be a Doctor of Neology.

 

[GrownupGirl]

I just recently decided to use the word "whinging" instead of "whining" because I just like "whinging" better. And I've heard my Cape Breton parents use it sometimes, too.

 

[LadyBird84]

Sometimes I make up words that sound like how I feel. Only around my husband though. I couldn't tell you what they mean, though he probably could.

 

[Nervous Rex]

Well stay with it, and one day you might even be a Doctor of Neology.

A Doctor of Neology should be able to make up their own title.

 

[Misery]

Usually only when I'm angry enough.

There's a couple of different ways it can go. Sometimes, it's a bit like some old person saying something like "dagnabit!" though I'm only 37. Like, maybe I'm getting angry at Windows or something, so you might suddenly hear something like "YAG-FRAZNAR!!!!" AKA, too agitated to be coherent, but the shouting continues nonetheless.

Or there's jamming random words together to make an insult, which again usually is thrown at Windows (I don't like Windows, can you tell?) A frequent one to hear recently is something like "ARGH YOU BOILED LUMP, DO WHAT I TELL YOU!" I'm not sure just what kind of lump is being boiled, but Windows somehow makes it work.

And then there's one particular favorite: If something is being particularly awful, instead of saying "well this thing sucks" I'll say "well this thing blows goat chunks". No, I don't know where the heck I got that from. Just roll with it.

 

[Progster]

Yes, I sometimes make up words - or change words slightly, or give people or things alternative names... like Mr. Jinglepockets.