9 novel english neologisms - manu melwin joy
TRANSCRIPT
9 novel English neologisms
Assistant Professor
Ilahia School of Management Studies
Kerala, India.
Prepared by
Manu Melwin Joy
Phone – 9744551114
Mail – [email protected]
Nerd• The slang term nerd means anintelligent but single-mindedperson, obsessed with a certainhobby or pursuit, e.g. a computernerd. But the word that has beenthe bane of so many elementaryschoolers' existence was actuallyinvented by their king: noneother than Dr. Seuss himself! Theword first appeared in print inSeuss' 1950 picture book, If I Ranthe Zoo, though Seuss' "nerd" is asmall animal from the land of Ka-Troo, not a pale kid with glassestaped together.
Yahoo• The origin of this word may add someunexpected irony to the well-knowninternet browser. Originally coined byJonathan Swift in his 1726 novelGulliver's Travels, Yahoo refers to thebrutish race of homo sapiens ruled bythe Houyhnhnm, a noble race ofspeaking horses. Swift's Yahoosdisplay all of the vices of humanitywith none of the virtues, thus itmakes sense that the word has cometo mean "a coarse or brutish person."If you say "yahoo" loud enough youmight be moved to experience ournext neologism.
Chortle • Lewis Carroll coined this funnyterm for a gleeful chuckle in his1872 novel, Through the LookingGlass, the sequel to Alice'sAdventures in Wonderland. In thenovel, the word appears in averse poem titled "TheJabberwocky," in which Alicefinds a book that can only be readusing a mirror. The old man in thepoem "chortles in his joy" whenhis son beheads the terriblemonster. Today the word is widelythought to be a combination of"chuckle" and "snort."
Quark• A quark can be any group ofelementary particles thatcombine to become a subatomicparticle such a neutron or proton.In other words, quarks are someof the smallest building blocks ofan atom. In 1964 the U.S.physicist Murray Gell-Mannnamed the particle after a wordhe found in James Joyce's novel,Finnegan's Wake. Joyce'squotation reads, "Three quarksfor Muster Mark," with "quark"referring to the cry of the seagull.
Utopia• Utopia is the title of Sir ThomasMore's whimsical and satirical bookwritten in 1516. More envisions aperfect society situated on an islandthat he names Utopia. Developingthe word from the Greek topos for"place," More chose the prefix ou- oru- meaning "not" or "no." Thus thename Utopia quite literally means noplace at all. Even though More mighthave his reservations about theachievability of a perfect world, ournext neologism might be the closestthing to a perfect sound.
Tintinnabulation• The American poet and author EdgarAllen Poe coined this onomatopoeticword in his 1849 poem "The Bells."The poem was published shortly afterPoe's death, and though the foursections of the piece becomeprogressively darker as Poe describesfour different types of bells,tintinnabulation characterizes thejoyous sound of silver sleigh bells,foretelling "a world of merriment."The word is derived from the Latintinnire meaning "to ring" combinedwith the instrumental suffix "bulum."
Grok• Do you feel like nobody groks you?Don't worry, Robert A. Heinlein does.In his 1961 best-selling science fictionnovel, Stranger in a Strange Land,Heinlein coined the term to mean anunderstanding so thorough that "theobserver becomes a part of theobserved--to merge, blend,intermarry, lose identity in groupexperience." But in common usagethe term means to communicatesympathetically or to "drink in"understanding. If you're reading thisslideshow off a screen, you'lldefinitely grok our next neologism.
Cyberspace• Though you might not want to build ahouse there, anyone with a computerhas a stake in cyberspace. Coined bythe science fiction writer WilliamGibson, cyberspace first appeared ina 1982 short story. The wordcombines the terms "cybernetics"(the use of mechanical and electronicsystems to replace human function)and "space" (an area or realm).Together they form "cyberspace," therealm of electronic communication orvirtual reality. If you've ever thought"virtual reality" was a bit of anoxymoron, you might be familiar withour final neologism.
Catch-22• "The deal sounds great, but what'sthe catch?" Have you heardsomething like this? Then you'dbetter hope the catch isn't a Catch-22. The phrase represents afrustrating situation in which one istrapped by contradictory regulationsor conditions. Catch-22 is the titleand central problem of JosephHeller's 1961 novel, and in Heller'scontext the catch represents asimultaneously dangerous and idioticmilitary regulation that maddens thepoor characters tangled in his Catch-22.
