At least, that was apparently Shakespeare's motto. Want to make it yours, too? Read on.
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| via npr.org. This is a picture of The Beatles dressed up like Shakespearean players because WHY NOT. |
So, everyone knows this fun fact, but here it is again: Shakespeare basically gave you half your vocabulary. He invented over 1,700 words. There were 600 new words in Hamlet alone. He essentially created the English language you know today. Let the irony not be lost that in spite of this, there are entire websites devoted to "translating" Shakespeare's works. He invented the following words: addiction, advertising, cold-blooded, majestic, moonbeam, puking, torture, skim milk (?!), dawn, blushing, lonely, hurry, undress, bloody, leapfrog, and bump. Now think about this: before Shakespeare, NONE of those words existed (or at least were used in the part of speech they function in today).
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| Damn right you did. (No, seriously, he coined the word swagger.) via pinterest.com |
Here's the bad news: it's pretty hard to make a word catch on. Think of this: the folks who watched Shakespeare's plays were probably thinking "what the hell does that mean?!" half the time, too, despite context clues. Thankfully there were actors handy to act out intents and convey the gist of what's going on. You probably don't have people on hand to act out all your gibberish. Bummer.
Here's the good news: poetry is the absolute perfect place to stick your gibberish. Providing you place it in a spot with enough context clues and/or latin word roots that someone can tear it apart to figure out what the hell it means.
What does this mean for you? Make shit up. Don't let a lack of words stand in your way of conveying something you can see in your mind. Look at latin word roots, similar words, and just do your thing. I had a professor (her name is Rebecca Wee) who invented the word "godblown"in her poetry. Isn't that just the most gorgeous word you've heard? I love it so much I used it in a poem myself. And right there is where you see a word start to catch on---make up words that are so perfect for what you want to say that other people cannot resist playing with them. The more people use your word, the more complex its meaning becomes and the more likely it is to play a role in a shared language.
Here are some writers like Shakespeare who were badass enough to invent words that stuck:
1. Lewis Carrol: chortle.
2. Dr. Seuss: nerd.
3. Jonathan Swift: yahoo.
4. François Rabelais: gargantuan.
5. Horace Walpole: serendipity.
6. Mark Twain: hard-boiled.
7. Sir Walter Scott: freelance.
8. Joseph Heller: catch-22.
9. Jane Austen: dinner party.
10. J.R.R. Tolkien: tween.
11. James Joyce: quark.
12. Charles Dickens: boredom.
13. Sylvia Plath: dreamscape.
14. John Milton: pandemonium.
15. Geoffrey Chaucer: twitter.
16. Edgar Allen Poe: tintinnabulation.
17. Thomas Hardy: unslumbering.
And that's just 17 of them. Chaucer and Milton, I'm sure invented quite a few more of their own words. Language is more malleable than we give it credit for. It evolves with us, and our everyday mispronunciations, misuse of words, creative licenses, and misspoken terms define where language is headed next. Language is a network that we created in order to connect communities, so it should only make sense that new terms arise as key community members (such as writers!) toss them out into the world. So give it a try! Maybe you'll invent the next "yolo" or "bae". (Confession: still don't know what "bae" means. But you get the idea.)
Wait! Before you leave to start spewing crazy ass words out into the world, give this writing prompt a try:
1. Make up 5 new words to use in your poetry by...
Step 1: compose 5 images of everyday actions or objects.
Step 2: combine each action with an object (or vice versa).
Step 3: put them together somehow (hyphens or smushed all in one) to make a word.
2. Make up 5 new words to use in your poetry by...
Step 1: look up 10 prefixes and suffixes.
Step 2: look up 10 nouns, verbs, and adjectives.
Note: You can use this site: http://www.prefixsuffix.com/rootchart.php to help!
Another note: You can also use full words for step 1 if you're feeling crazy.
Step 3: write them all out on slips of paper and put all the Step 1 words in a cup and the Step 2 words in another cup.
Step 4: select one slip of paper from each cup.
Step 5: keep going until you find 5 words that you like/actually make a little bit of sense.
3. Use your five new words in a poem as you see fit.
If you're looking for more information about made-up words, check out the following websites:
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