Made Up words.

[Petebass]

The spelling thread got me thinking about this.

Do you know anyone who uses words which don't even exist as part of their normal speech ? For example, I have a friend who often says TRET, as in "The waiters at the restaurant TRET us well last night". You can see what he's done. Many years ago he decided that if the past tense of Meet is Met, then the past tense of Treat must be Tret........

Any others?

[fraublugher]

i think tret might need to be taken back to webster 's for re-tooling.

oh and send your friend my love and a good solid wedgie for me .

John ,

[past participal police in perpetuity]

[tzadik]

Sure, all the time.

How about:

dramastic.

It describes that which is both dramatic and drastic.

[John Sprague]

Back in the car service days, I worked with a service writer who created so many words we wrote a short book full of 'em. My favorite was when he was comparing our product to the competition's, he would say that our widget was competible with theirs. I'll try to remember more, he was the master.

[mchildree]

If anything has been perfected here in the Deep South, it is the bastardization of the English language and sythesis of strange new "words". A real master can combine 4-5 words into one phrase. I think it's a result of our habit of talking slowly...we have to combine stuff to keep up with people from other places.

I may write as if I have a decent education, but you'd be horrified if you heard me speak in person. I daresay some of you would need a translator.

[Alexi David]

My girl got me started on "Ginormous". I like it.

If I can improvise the language of music, I'll do the same with English! Amen!

[Steve Killingsworth]

Originally Posted by mchildree

If anything has been perfected here in the Deep South, it is the bastardization of the English language and sythesis of strange new "words". A real master can combine 4-5 words into one phrase. I think it's a result of our habit of talking slowly...we have to combine stuff to keep up with people from other places.

Prime example: "Did you eat yet?" is usually said "djeet?"

[Petebass]

Originally Posted by Steve Killingsworth

Prime example: "Did you eat yet?" is usually said "djeet?"

How about "tidyenda" as in "You can ride y'bikes tidyenda street, but no further."

My singer has a good one. Now I can accept 2 different pronunciatiations of the word "either", but I can't handle him telling me we can do things "aither" way.

[Ben Rose]

Stoptional - any stop sign on private property such as a mall parking lot

[mchildree]

"Unonymous" ...everybody is doing "it" but you can't identify any of them. The result of raising a teenager. I'm pretty proud of that one.

[christ andronis]

I like "bazillion"..as in "that bass is worth a bazillion dollars."

[anonymous0726]

Abomatrocity: abomination/atrocity

Credit to drummer Ian Froman for that one, AFAIK.

[Wil Davis]

Here's an article I received from a friend, long before the days of "texting" - prophetic?

"To all lovers of the Queen's English:

The European Commission has just announced an agreement that English will be the official language of the EU, rather than German (the other possibility). As part of the negotiations, Her Majesty's Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement, and has accepted a 5-year phase-in of new rules which would apply to the language
and reclassify it as EuroEnglish.

The agreed plan is as follows:

In year 1, the soft 'c' would be replaced by 's'. Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard 'c' will be replaced by 'k'. This should klear up konfusion and keyboards kan now have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome 'ph' is replaced by 'f'. This will reduse 'fotograf' by 20%.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters, which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of the silent 'e's in the language is disgrasful and they should eliminat them.

By year 4, peopl wil be reseptiv to lingwistik korektions such as replasing 'th' with 'z' and 'w' with 'v' (saving mor keyboard spas).

During ze fifz year, ze unesesary 'o' kan be dropd from vords kontaining 'ou' and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.

After zis fifz year, ve vil hav a reli sensibil riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubls or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi to understand ech ozer....

Judging from the standard of grammar and spelling seen today on The Web, it would seem that this has already occurred.

- Wil

[hdiddy]

A common one for us Californian's is the word "hella" (i.e. "hella crazy"). Come to think of it, I can't think of any other origin word other than "hell". Someone told me it cane from east bay.

[Marcus Johnson]

Tons of 'em out here...Pidgin is a language and culture unto itself. One of my faves is "Brok' Da Mout", which refers to food so ono, so tasty, that it literally "broke my mouth".

However, if a local guy says "Like beef?" to you, he is not offering you some ono grindz, but asking you if you want to fight.

Shoots, cuz, get plenny. Kurt Muroki could spout pidgin at you for days.

[Mr.Phil]

I used to work with a guitar player who liked to say bro and dude a lot... One night he was speaking a little fast and accidentally said "bude"... He's used it ever since.

[John Sprague]

The kids and I use "schmirtelated", as in the Bills got schmirtelated by the Colts again (go Colts!).

[Tim Ludlam]

I am completely confuzzled by this thread. (confused + puzzled).

[Ben Rose]

That post about the EU language above is so funny.

The adaptability of the English language is often "misunderestimated". That word seems to be popping up more and more frequently.

[mje]

There's a name for these new constructions- neologisms. One of my nephews started using "Ginormous" about four years ago- I wonder where it came from?