Monday, July 16, 2007

Word Smithing...

... but before I get to the topic of the day, I'd just like to let out a big hoot and holler for a friend of mine who won the Golden Heart for best romantic suspense: Browyn Clarke. For pictures of Bron at the awards ceremony, click HERE. Hooray, Bron! I'm so proud of you!

Did you all see the article about 'ginormous' taking its place in the newest edition of the Merriam-Webster dictionary? ARTICLE. I found it interesting that the word could be traced back to 1948: "But Merriam-Webster traces ginormous back to 1948, when it appeared in a British dictionary of military slang."

This got me thinking about slang words and how long they've been around, so I did a bit of poking around the Internet, and here's what I found about the word "cool." Betcha didn't know it's been around for a while.

Cool: "Cool is rather remarkable in the length of time it's been a common slang word. There are related senses of cool that date back to the early nineteenth century, but the current senses--'clever; sophisticated', 'fashionable; stylish', 'superlative; enjoyable; satisfactory', and others--began to appear among African-Americans in the 1920s, and were popularized in mainstream society by jazz musicians after World War II. Since then, it has been extremely common, it has consistently been in favor, and it has always been considered slang." From The Maven's Word of the Day.

Remember "sniglets"-- words that weren't really words, but should be? (Yes, I know. I'm dating myself here...): here's one of my favorites:

Confuzzled: Confused and puzzled

So, have any sniglets to share? Come on, you know you wanna.

2 comments:

Sherry Jones said...

Thrickle (thri' kel) - n. The itch in the back of the throat which can't be scratched without making disgusting barnyard-type noises.

Heh. My mother is a champion Thrickle-Meister.

Glamorous Redneck said...

Situmatated - getting situated. Usually before going somewhere.

Ginormous was my favorite. My friends all call it "my" word because no one else uses it. Pity I can't take credit for it anymore.

~GOO~