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| a delicious and inspiring fragment from Wondermark by David Malki! (check the link under FUN, COOL, FUNNY) |
I had this quick thought, here amid the preparations for Christmas. I love the ability of English to generate new words. Actually, I love English for a lot of things, but one of them is certainly the spontaneous and welcome generation of new words. I even love the the word "neologism".
I recently wrote 'common-sensical' in an email, and the 'sensical' part came up with a spell-check underline, as it is right now in Blogger. I checked 'sensical', which did sound strange alone, and got, from Wiktionary (oh yeah!) that it is a neologism, used to make other a 'sense'-oriented adjectives, back-formed from 'nonsensical'. Of course. Perfect.
And then I wanted to write 'calendarize', a word I love to use, and feel as though I coined. Oh no, I di'n't! (Is that right for that funny way of saying it?) Wiktionary had that too, and this is where is English is so kewl (note to self, send out tweet: OMG English is kewl). Calendarize is a perfectly recognizable neologism, which English readily permits, turning a noun into a verb and vice-versa.
So one thing I love about English is neologisms, and the other thing I love is the flexibility of English pronunciation and I also love the irregularity, oh wait, among the many things things I love are neologism, flexibility of pronunciation and the irregularity of its spelling, which permit jokes, puns and neologisms that are easily communicated and understood: Thus 'common-sensical', 'calendarize' and 'kewl'.
I challenge any other language on earth to offer such openness such newness (oh wait, there's an old word for that: novelty - sorry). Bring it!
PS Thanks Alison - I never thought of making it a club! So fun! You are all welcome to join and feel free to send in your favourites.
Oh dear. Now the marigold is wondering nervously if anyone will join the club. Oh no! The magic eight-ball says "very doubtful": Yes, that's for you, too, Alison. And what should the annual dues be? I guess it doesn't matter.
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I shall join your club, souci! It's so kewl, it's a kewlsicle (which means it's doubly kewl). (Not to be confused with a kewlsickle, which is what the Grim Reaper carries when he goes clubbing.)
ReplyDeleteI think the club dues should be an offering of a new neologism. Old neologisms mean automatic rejection/expulsion from the club.
I had to laff out loud when I read this. And agree! Only NEW neologisms shall be acceptable. And don't worry. I don't feel at all self-conscious about the errors in spelling and grammar that I find in my old posts whenever I happen to look back at them. And also, dont you love Cormac McCarthy and his dropped apostrophes? I do think he has shown us a step forward for English. R U OK with that?
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