Popular Words Invented by Authors | Otherwords

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Authors often create words just for a one-time usage... but a special few will gain traction and become full-fledged parts of our shared lexicon!
Otherwords is a new PBS web series on Storied that digs deep into this quintessential human trait of language and fınds the fascinating, thought-provoking, and funny stories behind the words and sounds we take for granted. Incorporating the fıelds of biology, history, cultural studies, literature, and more, linguistics has something for everyone and offers a unique perspective into what it means to be human.
hosted by Dr. Erica Brozovsky, Ph.D.
written by Dr. Erica Brozovsky, Ph.D. & Andrew Matthews
directed by Andrew Matthews & Katie Graham
produced by Katie Graham
animated & edited by Andrew Matthews
executive producer Amanda Fox
Assistant Director of Programming (PBS): Niki Walker
Executives in Charge (PBS): Brandon Arolfo, Adam Dylewski
music by APM
images by Shutterstock

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27 июл 2021

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Комментарии : 2,5 тыс.

@Just_Some_Guy_with_a_Mustache 3 года назад

"That's a made-up word!" "All words are made up..."

@justsomeguywhowatchanime6314 3 года назад

Hi I'm your big fan 😊

@Kuwagumo 3 года назад

Why you're everywhere?

@yuvalne 3 года назад

I came here to say that

@ARDEN33.3 3 года назад

hi jellal

@WanderTheNomad 3 года назад

@Mr Max When people reply to OP, there's no "@______" at the front of their comment.

@markmurray2151 3 года назад

don't forget that Tolkien Also Popularized the plural "Dwarves" as opposed to "dwarfs"! his editors would frequently correct this thinking it was a mistake until he explicitly stated DO NOT

@Demolitiondude 3 года назад

Careful. Games workshop is watching.

@AHGrayLensman 3 года назад

@@Demolitiondude Of course, GW also thinks they own the term "space marine"... _First Lensman_, _Starship Troopers_, and _Aliens_ notwithstanding.

@Demolitiondude 3 года назад

@@AHGrayLensman have you seen the new ip guidelines?

@creature_skin 3 года назад

Also elves from elfs right?

@gracjanlekston134 3 года назад

You don't correct the geezer who helped write the dictionary

@conormurphy4328 2 года назад

“What do you do?” “I’m a contractor” *stabs with spear*

@SkyeID 3 месяца назад

that sounds more like a "contract killer".

@theunbalancedcharge2077 2 года назад

It’s crazy how words can go from being completely made up to perfectly cromulent in our modern language

@MartinMCade Год назад

I grok this.

@danohanlon8316 Год назад

Not crazy at all. It’s how languages grow.

@susieusmaximus5330 Год назад

Yup. All words were made up by someone at some point.

@cmolodiets Год назад

what does "made up" mean?

@susieusmaximus5330 Год назад

@@cmolodiets Created or invented, with the connotation that the thing that was made up is somehow invalid thereby, as in, "That's not a real x, it's a made-up x."

@MakhalanyaneMotaung 3 года назад

As a Brit, I found it very weird to hear "nonce" used so casually in an American accent and without derogatory meaning.

@shotakonkin2047 2 года назад

I'm an American yet I'm familiar with the British meaning so I was thrown off as well.

@FreezingmoonDSBM 2 года назад

Same 😭

@natheredagreat 2 года назад

i did too!

@Frostfern94 2 года назад

Yeah same

@flowerfaerie8931 2 года назад

I’m not even British and I still giggled like a teenage boy lol.

@fred166 3 года назад

oh dear, here in the UK 'nonce' is a slang term for paedophile!

@JeighNeither 3 года назад

She can't help it that your collective of nations is full of idiots.

@SupercriticalSnake 3 года назад

Fun fact: 18 percent of words commonly used in American English have horribly inappropriate meanings in the U.K. Funner fact: 99 percent of all derogatory terms in American English have little known but inoffensive meanings in the U.K.

@ojogunleye2209 3 года назад

@@JeighNeither Having certain slang terms, that we use colloquially, that you don't like, doesn't make us idiots. The same logic could be applied when every other anglophone country mentions 'rubbers' and Americans/Canadians start snickering like schoolchildren

@JoMo4Sho 3 года назад

Having never seen it in writing, I always thought that was just the UK pronunciation of "nance", being short for Nancy, being a derogatory (and inappropriate) term in US English for an effeminate male. Any idea on origin of the UK usage, apart from conversations about lexicography?

@georgehorton5724 3 года назад

@@JeighNeither are you ok? Something seems to be bothering you. Had a bad day?

@itaykerensm1629 2 года назад

I see the word "grok" used in nerdy circles quite often, it's a word from "stranger in a strange land" that means to deeply/fully understand something.

@KJ-of6lf 2 года назад

Used to be T-shirts that said "I Grok Spok" 🖖

@deeznoots6241 Год назад

Ironically quite similar to the term ‘Grockle’ which comes from Southwest England and refers to tourists(in a derogatory manner) which comes from 1964 film ‘The System’ set in Torquay, Devon.

@cevq6126 4 месяца назад

actually, if I recall from the text of SIASL, Heinlein gave the *literal* definition of grok as “to drink”, it’s connotation as “to imbibe something so deeply as to make part of oneself, thereby gaining the fullest possible understanding of it” follows metaphorically

@buddyryusukanku1886 2 года назад

I will always love how Gary Larson invented a term "Thagomizer" in his Far Side comic to describe the spikes on the end of some dinosaur tails, and later it was adopted by Paleontologists for the very same reason (as no one thought to name them before that point).

@vyoletrose3218 Год назад

As a fervent Far Side Fan, I love this comment lol

@katza831 Год назад

They said popular words

@blue_tree_meadow 3 года назад

Just thought I ought to let you know, in British slang, NONCE means sex offender. It comes from old prison slang originally used by Prison Officers I believe. It's actually an acronym for, "Not On Normal Courtyard Exercise," as sex offenders had to be kept separate from the normal prison population for fear of being beaten up or killed.

@southron_d1349 3 года назад

I'm always suspicious of acronyms as origins of words. Usually, they come from a technical source so we have scuba, radar, laser etc. I tried finding out the origins of "nonce" and the "once" meaning is much older. Wiktionary proposes rhyming "ponce" or a vowel change in "nance" (as in "nancy boy"). Either or both are more likely than an acronym.

@Bacopa68 3 года назад

I really tend to doubt acronym explanations for words older than the earlier twentieth century. Consider the supposed etymologies for "f**k" even when there are related words in German and Norwegian. And what of the proud Dutch name "Fokker", which just means "animal breeder"? I'm not saying you're wrong, just saying I need documentation.

@blue_tree_meadow 3 года назад

Ok, I didn't want to say it on here, but for clarity, the reason I know this was that I was a prison officer for 17 years, and that is the origin of that slang term for sex offender. I would absolutely grant that it's other definition, specified here, could well be older, but the acronym in the context of British slang is correct. Hope that helps. 🙂

@DMichaelAtLarge 3 года назад

We're not responsible for the vagaries of British slang. After all, the British call cigarettes "fags."

@blue_tree_meadow 3 года назад

@@DMichaelAtLarge too true 😁

@chrisredfield6404 3 года назад

I would love to live in an alternate world where experts in science are called “Scienomancers”

@WanderTheNomad 3 года назад

Perhaps they would go on to discover scienobacteria

@elfarlaur 3 года назад

Based on the latin form scientia, I imagine it would be more something like "scientomancers" or "sciencomancers"

@pwnmeisterage 3 года назад

Part of the reason _scientist_ was chosen - and quickly preferred by academic minds - was a deliberate effort to identify it as something distinctly different and apart from the occult. To separate chemistry from alchemy, astronomy from astrology, etc. Terms like _natural philosopher_ and _empirical logician_ and _mathematical physic_ were just too unwieldy for the lecture halls (and eventually referred to more specific fields of study).

@junjunjamore7735 3 года назад

but -mancer would imply divination.

@keithklassen5320 3 года назад

I like that the original term was "natural philosopher". It's a mouthful, but it sounds lovely.

@m0nkeywrench 2 года назад

That's something I love about the English language in particular, you can get away with making up a word if it has the right vibe for what you're going for

@m0nkeywrench 2 года назад

Here's one: "He was looking rather skrangly"; from the vibe of the word alone you can tell what it means

@MegaMaxiepad 2 года назад

@@m0nkeywrench dirty, messy, disheveled but in an odd sort of way? I find this word perfectly cromulent

@AndrewVelonis 2 года назад

"Serigraph" is a word describing a printing process using silk screens to print a work of art, one color at a time in series. The term was coined by Anthony Velonis, my father.

@NephiylusBaphson 2 года назад

If true, it must be damn awesome to claim that your dad is literaly a wordsmith.

@wodan74 2 года назад

@@NephiylusBaphson Sericum is the Latin word for silk, so it's not that far fetched.

@allendracabal0819 Год назад

@@wodan74 And sericulture is the raising of silkworms for silk.

@NivitMishra Год назад

Major Flex

@Aerosklice 9 месяцев назад

How do you feel about serigraphy being used in most languages but english is just "screenprint" ?

@SaiyanHeretic 3 года назад

"Gretchen, stop trying to make 'fetch' happen. It's not going to happen."

@tojiko6868 3 года назад

If you mean as a substitute for being a less offensive word for f--k, mormons already use that to technically *not* be cussing. (also fudge)

@brittmarshall1080 3 года назад

Ugh you beat me to what I was going to comment! (Ps it's from mean girls...)

@hereonmylunchbreak4663 2 года назад

@@tojiko6868 I was raised by Mormons, and my strict-even-for-Mormons parents specifically forbade that word and "flippin'."

@sophiejones3554 2 года назад

@@tojiko6868 that’s not it though. The joke is that “fetching” was once a slang term for “sexually attractive” as in “she’s very fetching in that bathing suit”. That’s the sense in which Gretchen is using the word in the movie Mean Girls. She’s attempting to bring back a shortened version of very dated slang, but nobody likes it.

@moyama 2 года назад

@@sophiejones3554 somebody tell gretchen its the bee knees that she wants to bring it back

@julieblair7472 3 года назад

That "actually" was GOLD. I love this series so much.

@jankay8569 3 года назад

Really deserves more views like Monstrum does.

@grf15 2 года назад

I only found this series yesterday. Such fun, and a great presenter too.

@tidepod Год назад

actually 🤓☝

@sm6756 Год назад

For me, I find George Orwell invention of words in 1984 very impressing. He has indeed put into words some very realistic concepts. I love to refer to them in my discussions.

@artugert Год назад

Such as?

@adidoki Год назад

@@artugert Newspeak for example, very popular

@sm6756 Год назад

@artugert yes newspeak is an example of the famous terms. There are also the words doublethink, thoughtcrime, thoughtpolice... and the "big brother" that indicates now something specific in the political dialogues

@SarmonOflynn Год назад

I love randomly, every few months, discovering a new channel, and finding that it is yet another pbs backed production. I'm pretty sure they're single handedly responsible for 50% of my online time at this point.

@jacobharvey2946 3 года назад

The Shakespeare animation continuously popping up with his giant smile is infectious.

@Bllue 3 года назад

His Willpower moment was cute

@deboralee1623 2 года назад

smile-inducing moment: at about 1:22, Shakespeare's quill drooped as he heard that the list of words he'd created went from two thousand-plus to, um, not so many.

@sorateal12 2 года назад

And the "Will Power" part was adorable!! ^_^

@juliusnepos6013 Год назад

Yeah

@Shikey_shakes 3 года назад

Not necessarily single words but rather names for things; H.G. Wells is credited with coining the terms "time machine" and "atomic bomb" in his science fiction works :)

@Jeff_isAverage 2 года назад

"Time Machine" is not one word but when people says it they always know it means a machine that has to do with traveling time, even if the combination of time and machine could mean something like a clock, so while it's technically not a word, H.G Wells definitely popularized the combination.

@tasse0599 2 года назад

@@Jeff_isAverage It is a word, I'd say. Many compound words are just spelled with spaces in them in English orthography

@miguelpimentel5623 2 года назад

@@Jeff_isAverage Shakespeare didn't create practically any words, he was just the first to write down the vulgar english that was spoken by the peasents, which already contained words like gossiping and bedroom. Most of the new words were already in wide use by the lower classes, they were just considered "incorrect english" by scholars.

@asonwiwijtrezequal985 2 года назад

Didn't he also make the term "martian"?

@kinjoko Год назад

είναι αυτό μια αναφορά στην γεωμετρική παύλα?!?!?!

@coconutologist 2 года назад

4:22 you kept the "uhh" in. Well done. That is impressive comedy.

@ourpeachscones 2 года назад

I love the idea of creating me own words for things that aren’t yet described as a concept

@gojjiraclay Год назад

I don’t know if you misspelled my but I read that with a pirate voice

@sofiamikaela9667 Год назад

@@gojjiraclay STOPPP cause i did too HAHAHA i started reading normally in the first half but after the "me" the rest came in a pirate voice 😭😭

@deeznoots6241 Год назад

@@gojjiraclaydid you know the ‘pirate’ voice is just a Southwest English dialect? Its thought of as the distinct pirate voice because a lot of English privateers cam from Southwest England including of course the most famous Sir Francis Drake.

@gojjiraclay Год назад

@@deeznoots6241 interesting

@MrRizeAG 3 года назад

I remember reading that Isaac Asimov accidentally created the word "robotics", assuming that it was already a real word, similar to "optics", "electronics", "sonics", or "economics". Not sure if it's true, but I'm sure that must have happened many times in the history of language.

@DominikaHare 2 года назад

"Do Androids dream of robotic sheep?" sounds like a good candidate for that. Wait, was that even by Asimov? I tend to mix up things.

@DominikaHare 2 года назад

@@MrRizeAG ahhh, my brain tends to do that sometimes.

@SpiderMan-gf1lc 2 года назад

@@MrRizeAG isn't that PKD?

@adamlowery2915 2 года назад

@@SpiderMan-gf1lc it is

@anonymouswitness3835 2 года назад

I'm sure it has. I've done it -- used a word which I'm sure is real (often by adding a prefix or suffix that appears to make sense, or turning a noun into a verb or vice versa) only to discover that it isn't a word at all.

@minski76 3 года назад

Putting on glasses just for the "Actually" bit. What a nerkle.

@pbsstoried 3 года назад

*~*Actually*~* I do wear glasses 95% of the time 🤓- Dr. B

@SmartStr33t 2 года назад

I've got one to add: "Utopia" was invented by Sir Thomas Moore in his novel of the same name. Literally meaning "No-Place-ia", the story describes an imaginary island where the governance is perfect or ideal. It's told as if it were a real place described to Moore by a sailor who had been there on one of his voyages, so much so that people at the time were fooled into thinking it was fact rather than fiction. Obviously it is the root of its antonym: 'dystopia' which has spawned a whole genre of books and movies nowadays. Not invented by an author, but another fun invented word is "vegan", which was invented by Donald Watson in 1944 by taking the first and last letters of "vegetarian". He felt that veganism was in this way the beginning and end of vegetarianism.

@legathar8558 Год назад

actually, "utopia" doesn't just mean "no place". It's a pun, sounding most like the greek for "Good/Perfect Place" while also sort of sounding like the greek for "No Place"

@twincast2005 Месяц назад

@legathar8558 You got your trivia mixed up at some point. Utopia absolutely literally means "no place". That the English pronunciations for Greek prefixes u- and eu- had merged (together with words featuring the latter being much more common) is why lots of people misunderstood it as "good place" and how it acquired its modern, non-literal meaning of "perfect place", from which dystopia ("bad place") is derived as an antonym.

@danielkoschalka3955 2 года назад

“This may not be a tremendous loss to literature “…Dr Seuss was something very special amongst kids’ authors, although I must admit I don’t know these particular books.

@Reverend_Salem 2 года назад

and iirc they weren't even in publication at the time. and haven't done well in a while

@greywolf7577 2 года назад

@@Reverend_Salem One of the books "On Beyond Zebra" is one of my favorite Dr. Seuss books. Even if they weren't selling well, they could have printed a small number of them and still made a profit. Nothing in any of the books crossed the line.

@InquisitorThomas 3 года назад

Not going to lie, Sciencesmith sounds kinda cool.

@thecommenter8751 3 года назад

What about sciencifics

@lazergurka-smerlin6561 3 года назад

@@thecommenter8751 Sounds more like a field of study than a person

@joshua-kramer 3 года назад

Going to head to the knowledge forge and smith some science.

@christopherbacon1077 3 года назад

@@thecommenter8751 Originally science fiction was called scientifiction by Hugo Gernsback

@Felix-wq2ec 3 года назад

Sounds like a fantasy term.

@PhilBagels 3 года назад

Another origin story I heard for "nerd" is that it came from some college (U of Pennsylvania, IIRC, but the actual college doesn't necessarily matter to this story): They spelled the word "knurd" - for a typically brainy, academic type who spends all his time studying and has little to no social life. It comes from spelling the word "drunk" backwards. The cool kids would go out and party and socialize and get drunk, while the knurds were those who didn't party or drink or socialize. Perhaps because of Dr. Seuss, the nerd spelling eventually became standard. After all, there's a party to get to! We don't have time to add a silent 'k'!

@NK-pr9xy 2 года назад

Nerd with a "k" seems like a more appropriate way to spell it. That is, emphasizing need a silent letter for the "actual" spelling seems like a nerdy grammar-police thing to do. *not harping on anyone. This is a strict description of myself and anyone like me

@danzjz3923 Год назад

Time to grammer correct everyone that is is Knurd

@feltstuffing Год назад

@@danzjz3923 aaaaahahah, i see what ye did there!

@cupidok2768 Год назад

Smurf nerf buff

@HenryLoenwind Год назад

Actually, knurd is the state you're in when you're beyond sober and need to drink something merely to become sober. It is not a pleasant state as reality becomes so clear to you that it feels like you're being hit by a stone wrapped in a thin slice of lemon. PS: Sorry to mix authors here ;) PS2: knurd is Terry Pratchett, the lemon slice is Douglas Adams.

@sharif47 2 года назад

6:21 "Memes, the DNA of the soul" No one came up with this comment yet?

@bait5257 2 года назад

Gottem

@DDName 2 месяца назад

“Doktor, turn off my meme inhibitors”

@roysreceptive Год назад

I’m surprised she didn’t bring up the term “portmanteau” when talking about Lewis Carroll and the joining or blending of two words together to create a new word with a new meaning.

@chanterelle483 2 года назад

Thank you for featuring Čapek! Fun fact: It was actually brother of Karel Čapek, modernist painter Josef Čapek, who created the word. When Karel was writing his play R. U. R., he asked him for help with creating the term for an artificial worker and Josef delivered.

@maxfilip971 2 года назад

Ano, děkuji🤌🏻👌🏻

@risaswonderland 2 года назад

Interesting fact: Josef Čapek is also a writer. He wasn't just a painter. He wrote for example a story called Země mnoha jmen (Country of many words).

@katerinajezdikova7104 2 года назад

I've been literally searching for this comment in the section, trying to find out whether I'm supposed to post it myself. :D

@katerinajezdikova7104 2 года назад

@@risaswonderland Yeah! And they had eventually written jointly a play Pictures from the Insects' Life (Ze života hmyzu). Also he was an author of Czech well-known fairy-tales. So true!! I'm glad to have found those comments there!!

@AdiiraKuro Год назад

Better "robot" than "labor".

@rainebat 3 года назад

i can’t be the only one from the UK who started hysterically laughing from its being called nonce help 😭😭

@dylanford5313 2 года назад

Fr 😂

@bigfrankfraser1391 2 года назад

same, american scholars seem to love nonces

@jacksea3814 Год назад

Not just the UK. It's used in that sense in Australia too.

@jouiboui Год назад

I mean do UK linguists not use this word to describe the same concept?

@rainebat Год назад

@@jouiboui probably not since it’s pretty unanimous about what that word means in slang ig

@TheLifeOfKane Год назад

How is this it not a great literature loss? 6 books by Dr Suess? Hes an international legend

@burningphoneix Год назад

Because PBS likes censorship

@MW-ic7lr Год назад

PBS: "Yeah so um 6 less Seuss's? No big whup."

@StripedJacket Год назад

It’s not though. If you own them you still have them If anything the decrease in supply makes the existing ones value go up

@charleswettish8701 Год назад

@@burningphoneix No one censored Dr. Seuss. HIS ESTATE made the decision.

@burningphoneix Год назад

@@charleswettish8701 Self-Censorship exists

@TopGunner4411 Год назад

Awesome episode. You can really feel the host enjoys what they do. The material was delivered in a fun and informative way!

@johnrichardallen4470 3 года назад

This is actually very interesting, I didn't know any of these words were originally neologisms. We usually don't think about hahahaha excellent video

@stevesmith291 3 года назад

All words were originally neologisms.

@johnrichardallen4470 3 года назад

@@stevesmith291 well, all words were made up, obviously. But "neo", as far as I know, refers to something that already exist and it is changed to something new.

@lued123 2 года назад

@@johnrichardallen4470 Neo just means that something is new or recent, not necessarily that it came from modifying something else. So yes, all words were neologisms at some point.

@Kurtizss 3 года назад

"700 years later, we're the encaged birds, tweeting our takes into the void" Truly Accurate in every Points

@sethcollins893 2 года назад

You’ve got to admire the work these people have done on this video. Great quality content and entertaining! Good job!

@herecomemacOnTT 2 года назад

This gave me big Prindle flashbacks lol that book gave my friends and I SUCH an introduction to linguistic freedom as kids that we practically had our own language, most of which I remember 20 years later!

@JordanS-ww4eu Месяц назад

Girl that’s so raven

@Mikeztarp 3 года назад

That "actually" with the imaginary glasses made me chortle.

@idk-dz 3 года назад

What does it mean ? Is it a reference to something ?

@kalisticmodiani2613 3 года назад

@@idk-dz just an offensive stereotype of people with glasses

@Vininn126 3 года назад

As an an amateur linguist this channel fills a niche that other language channels don't

@gunjfur8633 3 года назад

Like what type of other language channels?

@Vininn126 3 года назад

@@gunjfur8633 nativlang, biblaridion, artifexian, langfocus, langtimestudio. I love each and every one of these, highly recommend. This channel is just doing something different :)

@mikevaleriano9557 2 года назад

Suggested randomly to me by youtube today, and, frankly, one of the most entertaining and well made videos I have seen in this platform to date.

@dg9444 2 года назад

0:22 British people: AYYYOOOO

@SC_3344 2 года назад

So true

@jjtheslumpgod8483 2 года назад

I know brudda it’s madddd

@grimalexx 3 года назад

I love that she pronounced "Karel Čapek" perfectly.

@mikosoft 2 года назад

Not perfectly but pretty close

@reginaldforthright805 2 года назад

No one cares

@pajalixd4016 2 года назад

@@reginaldforthright805 Well i care. It seems you're the only one here who does not care. And why would you bother with writing this if you don't care ?

@saulgoodmanKAZAKH 2 года назад

@@reginaldforthright805 it's really about representation of a language and a culture here my msn

@danik4985 2 года назад

sounds yes, but the wrong sillables were stressed

@feyefall4855 3 года назад

It is nice to be reminded how creative you can be while writing. Even the words themselves don't limit you, if you use them well enough.

@Dicska 10 месяцев назад

This is so true that I can only fragwuiopitise with everything you just said.

@tsunami-lightwave9395 2 года назад

Another great one is "grok" (to understand something intuitively) which came from Robert Heinlein's Sci-Fi novel "Stranger in a Strange Land" and got picked up by hippies in the 60's but I have still heard used even today.

@greywolf7577 2 года назад

The head designer of Magic the Gathering uses that term frequently, but he's really the only person I know of who does.

@SpatialDragon 2 года назад

Okay this lady is a great presenter for the show. More of her please.

@terenceconnors9627 2 года назад

"Thagomizer", the distinctive arrangement of 4 spikes on the tails of stegosaurine dinosaurs, brought to us by the one and only Gary Larson. Best word origin ever.

@Blokewood3 2 года назад

After the late Thag Simmons.

@marieroberts5458 2 года назад

I love the fact that after Larson coined it, the rest of the paleotological world picked it up and ran with it.

@KJ-of6lf 2 года назад

@@marieroberts5458 nerds rule! 🤓

@marieroberts5458 2 года назад

@@KJ-of6lf we do indeed! ;-)

@Mottleydude1 Год назад

Poor Thag!

@abbashussain98 2 года назад

The word nonce at 0:28 in the children alphabet sorta font is so ironic. Lol my fellow brits know what im talking about. 🤣🇬🇧

@jjtheslumpgod8483 2 года назад

It’s maddddd

@LTD538 Год назад

Nonce? 😂

@DMacB42 2 года назад

I can't describe why, but I love the face cartoon Shakespeare is making.

@LDNpro01 2 года назад

When NONCE came up on screen I started laughing so much 🤣

@thegnarledpirate9198 3 года назад

My favorite is VORPAL. It has no meaning yet it sounds badass when used to describe a weapon. The mere words VORPAL SWORD are enough for you to understand you are dealing with a legendary weapon and you'll not want to fight who's wielding it.

@BonaparteBardithion 3 года назад

My favorite word from the poem is the onomatopoeic "snicker snak".

@Lucius1958 3 года назад

@@BonaparteBardithion Possibly derived from the word "snicker-snee", meaning a cut-and-thrust sword... (PS: I can't help thinking of the fictitious cereal in _Peanuts_ : "Snicker Snacks")

@michaelregis1015 2 года назад

Mine are manxome and gyre.

@robinrehlinghaus1944 2 года назад

Where is it from

@michaelregis1015 2 года назад

@@robinrehlinghaus1944 Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll

@mrav8r 2 года назад

I have a ‘friend’ named Stacey Gass. She has a sassy personality. I wanted to look up the etymology of her last name so I googled it. I found the word ‘sassigassity’, a hapax legomenon, which is a word that exists only one time in all of recorded literature. It means ‘audacity with attitude’, also an aptronym. This word appeared in a Dickens short story, and the word remains as one-of-a-kind as she is!

@shrimpshufflr7745 2 года назад

Omg I just found this series and now I'm bingewatching lol. Keep up the good work!

@obscurereference6298 Год назад

"First World Problems" was from a book around 1980. I forget the book but I know that from there it went into a Matthew Good Band song in the mid 90's and then became popular around 2002.

@KonniWynn 3 года назад

Tolkien also invented the word "wraith", I believe. And for the german version of his tales he was adamant not just to use the existing word for elf, which was... elf. He combined it with the word "alb", which is also a mythical creature. Thus, now we have the word "Elb" to mean "tall, humanoid elves". "Elves" is also a plural Tolkien at least popularized again, for the plural of elf (by his time) was "elfs".

@michelottens6083 3 года назад

Tolkien did a whole lot to repopularize archaic language in modern media, and that's not to even mention him popularizing the wholesale invention of languages for dramatic purposes.

@sophiejones3554 2 года назад

He did not invent the word “wraith”. However, he did invent the modern meaning and usage. Prior to Tolkien, “to wraith” was used as we would use the verb “to distort”. He made it a noun, and associated it firmly with the idea of an evil ghostly figure. Hence we now call vengeful spirits “wraiths”. He actually wrote a whole essay about why he chose the name “Ringwraith” for these creatures. It’s fascinating, well worth a read if you can get your hands on it.

@jedisilvr 2 года назад

Yeah, literally none of that is true. "Elb" is not a word used by Tolkien anywhere, and I can't find any reference to that word *being used in English* anywhere online. Also, "Elves" was the common and accepted pluralization at Tolkien's time. His contribution was changing "dwarfs" to "dwarves" (see the introduction to The Hobbit for a source on that. *Edited to reflect a correction by @Toomany Francis

@ToomanyFrancis 2 года назад

The "elves" vs "elfs" one is incorrect. According to Ngram "elves" has always been the more popular plural for "elf". He did however repopularize "dwarves" as opposed to "dwarfs" by accident, later defending it saying that "dwarves" fit better alongside "elves". The plural "dwarves" is still only used in a fantastical context, where it has since become significantly more popular, real people with dwarfism are still dwarfs.

@ToomanyFrancis 2 года назад

@@jedisilvr In the German translation of Tolkien's work the word "elb" is used in place of "elf".

@alexvsss 3 года назад

I remember "Cyberpunk", coined by Bruce Bethke in the 80's.

@literaterose6731 3 года назад

Wow- I thought it was coined by a different Bruce (Bruce Sterling)! Cool, learn something new every day 😎

@stevesmith291 3 года назад

It was the title of a short story that appeared in Amazing Stories in 1983. The term was popularized by Gardner Dozois, the editor of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. Dozois was apparently the first to use it to denote a literary subgenre.

@grig8310 2 года назад

As someone who has lived in the Czech Republic’s for over 15 years, I can definitely tell you that they are proud of Čapek inventing the word ‘robot’.

@tomasheller6072 4 месяца назад

Hell yeah we are! :D

@kennethhymes9734 2 года назад

Pandemonium also has a place in psycholinguistics, as a theoretical model for the way the brain processes spoken language. The model separates the task into discrete stages carried out by different "demons". Dunno exactly why they landed on that.

@LangThoughts 3 года назад

Imagine the alternate universe where Whewill called "scientists" "scientologists" 🤣

@JeighNeither 3 года назад

My favorite episode yet. I absolutely love word origins, & watching how they can grow to great heights, or fizzle out & fade into obscurity, just like people can! Sometimes I feel this channel meanders from it's mission statement, but this episode is on point. Keep 'em coming please!

@JeighNeither 3 года назад

Ooh, I got a heart from the channel 💕 My day is made! I was even a bit constructively critical, but in the kindest way. Still, that tells you how cool they are, & of course they would be, because they read! They understand the world isn't binary, thanks to their common sense, but also because of a life lead by literature. It will bring you happiness.

@JeighNeither 3 года назад

I actually ended up watching this again, after I got the heart, & there are so many clever references that I missed first time around.

@JeighNeither 3 года назад

Omg, the love is over-flowing! This is my new GOATED channel now, (thought you might appreciate that I added this shiny new word which has evolved it's way into the zeitgeist lately), & when I make my annual pbs donation, I'm going to say I owe it all to their amazing RU-vid channel "Storied".

@ertavampy4622 2 года назад

Try learning about a language not as new as English.

@artugert Год назад

@Erta Why do you say that?

@Sansrage. Год назад

Whoever put nonce in play blocks knew what they were doing 😂.

@christophercuccia1822 2 года назад

Cheers for including “Pandemonium.” Incidentally, Milton also coined the phrase “all Hell broken loose.” See Book IV, lines 917-18 of PARADISE LOST: “…wherefore with thee / Came not all Hell broke loose?”

@HofTheStage 2 года назад

Haven't seen a better crafted video in a long time. Absolutely wonderful!

@heyleighmikaila 2 года назад

Okay but... Billy Shakespeare's cartoon lashes were on fleek!

@ERMediaOfficial 2 года назад

As an Austrian, knowing fully well the darkness that came with the most famous book bannings in recent history, I have to state that starting this video by saying banning these books is not a great loss is pretty much the worst opening ever. One should never ban any books, no matter the context. Instead, the problematic bits should be highlighted and used for debate, training and learning about the problematic history. If we just ban everything we don't like inevitably we will end up with nothing.

@justanerdyhobbitgirl 2 года назад

This

@masterpieceicesculptures7029 2 года назад

They were not "banned" by any sort of outside agency or government body. The publisher, in conjunction with the Dr. Seuss estate, decided to stop publishing them based on the content, written or illustrated, being insensitive to some members of our modern society.

@greywolf7577 2 года назад

@@masterpieceicesculptures7029 There are videos of each book being read on RU-vid. I've listened and looked at all of the Dr. Seuss books that aren't being printed anymore. Some of them it was difficult to see what the complaint was. And even the "worst" ones didn't cross the line to being offensive. If they really cared that much, they could have just taken out the offending page of each book, though it would be better still if they let each parent decide whether the book was appropriate or not rather than make the decision for us.

@ninsuhnrey 2 года назад

Very easy for you to say, whose ethnicity and phenotype is not the one featured and degraded.

@Napalm6b 2 года назад

Thank you, the way these people casually do this sort of thing and try to sweep it under the rug while also claiming moral superiority is sickening.

@Petit784 3 года назад

There's also, for modern times, the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrow, whose whole purpose is to invent neologisms. Sonder, you may know it.

@kenster8270 3 года назад

Koenig's clips are all profound little pieces of art, each with evocative visuals accompanying his narration.

@Petit784 3 года назад

@Kot-Kojote Working on a book and periodically updates the Tumblr.

@glauvie 2 года назад

Sonder is German tho

@somedude6161 3 года назад

Didn't mention Orwell, like "double think", "big brother" and "cold war".

@chanterelle483 2 года назад

These aren't words, but expressions.

@Obviary 2 года назад

Doublethink is one word

@rey_8834 2 года назад

@@chanterelle483 more like compound words than expressions, but still not exactly one word

@skiprockjr.6881 2 года назад

She also didn't mention Shakespeare coined "cuckhold".

@Ari-zp4dd Год назад

Love how entertaining you made your videos

@cactiguide 2 года назад

“While this may not be a tremendous loss to literature” - so flippantly stated. 👏👏👏

@picksalot1 2 года назад

Agree. Trying sanitize history and literature engages in perpetuating a delusion as well.

@Doublemonk0506 3 месяца назад

Because they are. When has a person actually brought up these books ever, especially separate from his Magnum Opera (Green Eggs and Ham, The Cat in the Hat, etc)

@stepanhrebicek8309 2 года назад

Fun fact, the word Robot was first used by Karel Čapek but it was made up by his brother Josef Čapek, who was also a writer but more importantly a painter

@RFC-3514 Год назад

Well, not really made up from scratch, more like adapted and used in a narrower sense (it's a shortening of the preexisting word "robota", which has the same root as the German word "arbeit"). It's a bit like "droid", which is a shortening of "android" with a narrower meaning.

@katherinelynch4193 3 года назад

2:37 Anyone else get distracted to learn that Spider-Man helped bring Paradise Lost to print?

@SupercriticalSnake 3 года назад

Nice catch! I was too busy reciting “Paradife loft” to notice that it was “Printed, and are to be fold by Peter Parker.” I guess it beats doing freelance work for J. Jonah Jameson.

@JeighNeither 3 года назад

Damn that's meta Katherine 👏🏽

@Zimisce85 3 года назад

@@SupercriticalSnake "Paradise loft" also known as "the struggle to gain the best estate"

@onebeartoe 4 месяца назад

Word! I recently found this show and I love it so much. Dr. Brozovsky is so awesome!

@TravisRichey 2 года назад

Love this. I just went on a deep dive into the etymology of “copacetic”, with my mom a few days ago. Apparently the literary origins are a bit disputed as well as being fairly recent, within the last century or so ~Trav

@jednota6969 3 года назад

You know us Czech bros were waiting for Karel Čapek

@sarahberlaud4285 3 года назад

I just taught my (French) husband the word chortle yesterday! It's the only way to describe our 6-month-old baby's peals of laughter when we nom his tummy. Thanks, Mr. Carroll!

@EALM95 2 года назад

In spanish, for clockwise and counter-clockwise, it's always referred to as "the way of the clock hands" and "the wrong way of the clock hands". It was a huge revelation to me, when I finally found product with back instructions that instead used "sentido horario" and "sentido antihorario", which translate better the word for clockwise. No longer was it a whole phrase, but just two words.

@LoveYouPlant Год назад

This is so well done! Hilarious presenter, witty writing, perfect editing!

@davidhanson4909 3 года назад

Context really matters for some words. I myself have seen a Scotsman shoot beer out his nose at the mention of a "fanny-pack".

@abigailoverton7610 2 года назад

lmao can say the same fir aussies its so weird when americans say it in movies

@waynewalters426 2 года назад

@@abigailoverton7610 I think most here in the states just assumed it was a synonym for one's navel or hiney. Don't you guys refer to your mates as "cunts" over there? That term would make a lot of Americans cringe in the same way

@abigailoverton7610 2 года назад

@@waynewalters426 haha yea, i think its kinda different though cause the word has the same anatomical meaning its just used different socially. on the other hand i remember reading the phrase ‘sitting on our fannies’ i Roald Dahl book and genuinely thinking he was referring to female genitals. Little me was very amused and confused.

@BertGrink 3 года назад

I would like to add Isaac Asimov to this list: he is credited for the first use of the word "Robotics" in writing.

@NovaSaber 3 года назад

And didn't even realize it; he just assumed that was already the word for it.

@twistedtachyon5877 3 года назад

@@NovaSaber great way to coin a word, that. You get very sensible additions that way.

@Clem-bi3eq Год назад

I did not think I would find this video SO interesting, but the pacing, presentation, and editing made this video amazing and a very interesting watch

@bossfan49 2 года назад

I don't say "evasion". I say "avoision". - Kent Brockman "A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man." - Jebediah Springfield (It's a perfectly cromulent word.)

@ArawnsFire 3 года назад

Great , so one day Chungus will have legitimacy ? Saints preserve us .

@BonaparteBardithion 3 года назад

It's a recognizable proper noun, but chonk and heckin' chonker have a better chance of permanent adoption because they're easier to widely use.

@WanderTheNomad 3 года назад

You're not ready for "sussy little baka"

@timseguine2 3 года назад

@@BonaparteBardithion a chonking big chungus

@edwardlayer4259 3 года назад

It was actually Karel Čapek’s brother, Josef, who created Robot, Karel was just the first person to publish it.

@sunshineyrainbows13 2 года назад

The Shakespeare bits were hilarious and adorable. Great video

@kristinacuk1506 2 года назад

Your every video blows my mind, I love them so much! Thank you!

@parallaxnick637 3 года назад

Tolkien also popularised "dwarves" as a plural of "dwarf", which has become a plague on astronomy forums.

@barleyr1763 2 года назад

John Milton created the word “Outer Space” - before that it was called the heavens!! He also created words like terrific, stunning, deluded, damp and bickering!

@xhappybunnyx Год назад

Honestly I chalked my own tendency to slap "-able" or "un-" on words to a sort of sloppiness, but it's so cool to see that language gets better the more it's allowed to be fluid

@booksteer7057 2 года назад

It's just a combination of two words, but the phrase "mini me", written by Mike Myers, has caught on like no other new phrase in my lifetime.

@niccolasalbiz7368 3 года назад

This series is amazing. What I’ve wanted for so long but even better than what I imagined. Erica, you and the writers are astoundingly clever, clear and funny. Many thanks!

@giorgoskonstantinou_animation 2 года назад

Oxford dictionary includes the word "Stan", which means a huge fan of something (also ment in a bad way). It was created by Eminem after his hit-song "Stan" where he sings about a toxic fan. Maybe not an author and maybe its still a bit early, but still cool

@fangirlmode8705 Год назад

It's a combination of the word 'fan' and 'stalk.'

@giorgoskonstantinou_animation Год назад

@@fangirlmode8705 no its not haha look it up

@fangirlmode8705 Год назад

@@giorgoskonstantinou_animation That's from what I know.

@giorgoskonstantinou_animation Год назад

Google it

@fangirlmode8705 Год назад

@@giorgoskonstantinou_animation We are both correct though. It is indeed a combination of the words stalker (pardon me for making a mistake on that one) and fan. We all know stalking is bad (everyone knows the meaning of the so I am not going to explain), and combining that with word fan, and that is how the word stan exist.

@rubymaggard1607 2 года назад

I cannot believe you just said the loss of 6 Dr. Seuss books was not a huge literary loss. That’s the loss of pure ART!!! Great video tho very interesting

@meeds7473 Год назад

There's something quite moving about Shakespeare having had so much influence. A playwright from 400+ years ago and we still quote him whether we mean to or not. I sometimes think similarly to old tales from the classical and medieval period. How we listen to/watch/read/learn about these stories that have been passed down for centuries or thousands of years - the writer probably had no idea people would come back to their work after so long had passed.

@JackandSally4ever 3 года назад

I never really gave much thought to etymology, but this show is so absolutely fascinating that I want to look into it more

@rob7953 3 года назад

"Not all of [Shakespeare's] words caught on..." Now I really want to know what kickie-wickie is!

@CallmeOzymandias 3 года назад

Same

@kawaiilotus 2 года назад

It means your spouse.

@melikeyildirim7 2 года назад

The word meme being a meme itself is one of the most hilarious things I've ever heard.

@adelynwitmer1318 2 года назад

I'm so glad I know that the word meme is a meme now, I'm inflicting this knowledge on everyone around me

@brutusmagnuson315 3 года назад

Well, I now know why there’s a Doom level called “Pandemonium.” I did figure out the origin of “freelancer” by picking the word apart, though. It makes me feel like a cool marauder, even though I just make art. 😂

@bybambi 2 года назад

4:44 I gave myself whiplash right there, you pronounce his name EXTREMELY well like are you sure you aren't Czech I had to show my grandmother how well you said that