SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

I think "grok" and "droog" are the only words I find myself using in normal conversation.

Trying to think of some of the words Mieville added to his books...

Droog is from A Clockwork Orange, which has lots of made up words, but not many very nice ones. Droog is like crony or pal I guess?

Fizzbungle is great! Embassytown is a book about language, so I think that might be an interesting one, though I think more of the made up words are in Perdido Street. Maybe also check out Babel-17, another language-centric scifi that has a few words, but most of which I don't recall...other than "deperceptualized," which I don't think fits your criteria.

It’s from tv, not a book, but cromulent (Simpsons) is a regular part of my vocabulary.

Melanie wrote: "It’s from tv, not a book, but cromulent (Simpsons) is a regular part of my vocabulary."

Oh, and embiggen, too!

Do you have a list online so we don’t keep recommending ones you’ve already encountered?

Like “ansible” (Le Guin) or “waldo” (Heinlein) or “cyberspace” (Gibson) or “cryostasis” (Tiptree) or “jack-in” (Silverberg)?

What about words coined for SFF that have passed into common usage? Robot, android, cyborg, superhero, spaceship, etc.

The Known Space universe by Larry Niven has the curse word “tanj”. It stands for “There Ain’t No Justice” and I suspect Niven was making fun of the idea that most people believe curse words are acronyms. (No, the f-bomb is not an acronym, despite what people claim.)

See also: “frak” and “felgercarb” from Battlestar Galactica, “shazbot” from Mork & Mindy, “gorram” from Firefly, “drak” from the Sten Chronicles, “frell” from Farscape, “karabast” from Star Wars....

Frindle by Andrew Clements

A boy arbitrarily makes up a new word for a pen and this is about how he and others work to make it an accepted word in society. Of course, that word hasn't made it into regular English IRL.

Ahhhh, Frak brings back such good BSG memories.

My favourite is "blerg" from 30 Rock. In my mind it's quite onomatopoeic.

The show also gave us "lizzing" which is laughter induced urination. Not quite a compound word, more of a blend (laughing/whizzing) as well as a play on the character's name.

I get that you don't want to use Rowling's Latin-derived coinages, but I would think "muggle" (for a non-magical person) would qualify.

What an interesting topic!

Teresa wrote: "isn't "robot" originally from Czech? Or am I nuts?"

it's from R.U.R. by Karel Čapek: R.U.R., or Rossum’s Universal Robots

“Snoo-snoo” (aka sex) from Futurama.

“Goon” (as in “thug”) and “Jeep” from Popeye.

“Brainiac” from Superman. A character name, now it means a smart person. Often used sarcastically.

“Poindexter” from Felix the Cat.

“Thagomizer” from The Far Side.

“Fuligin” (the blackest black) from The Book of the New Sun.

“Lilliputian” and “brobdignagian” from Gulliver's Travels.

“Grinch.”

Half the words from Jabberwocky. See also “chortle.”

“Pandemonium” from Paradise Lost.

There's a slew of them in Lewis Carroll …

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

'Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!'

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood a while in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One two! One two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

'And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
Oh frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Allison wrote: "Droog is from A Clockwork Orange, which has lots of made up words, but not many very nice ones. Droog is like crony or pal I guess?

Fizzbungle is great! Embassytown..."

Droog is Russian for 'friend'. A lot of the Clockwork Orange nadsat words are from Russian (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Append...). Incidentally, 'nadsat' is the Russian suffix for 'teen', as in thirteen (trinadsat), fourteen (chtyrnadsat), and so on--appropriate enough for the slang that teens use.

Trike wrote: "Do you have a list online so we don’t keep recommending ones you’ve already encountered?

Like “ansible” (Le Guin) or “waldo” (Heinlein) or “cyberspace” (Gibson) or “cryostasis” (Tiptree) or “jack-..."

Ansible and waldo are good, but cyberspace and cryostasis, and probably jack-in, are just compounds of existing words or morphemes, and so don't count.

What's the policy on proper names? Anyone can keyboard smash and call it a proper name; I think what makes frell and cromulent (and ansible and waldo) so pleasing is that they have meanings that are not at all proper names, and *can* be adopted into common usage. Proper names I guess are only adopted into proper usage in fandom communities based around the property that generated those proper names in the first place.

Ergative wrote: "Allison wrote: "Droog is from A Clockwork Orange, which has lots of made up words, but not many very nice ones. Droog is like crony or pal I guess?

Fizzbungle is great! [book:Emba..."

Oh neat, I didn't realize it was a borrowed word.

Jay Kristoff calls his followers on social media droogs.

I’d be careful with Embassytown. I just finished reading it and I already can’t think of any words that would count although it seemed like every other word was made up. But according to your exclusions, no. Some words which may seem made up are actually German and Miéville uses the English translation interchangeably (I. E. The immer/the always).

Ergative wrote: "Ansible and waldo are good, but cyberspace and cryostasis, and probably jack-in, are just compounds of existing words or morphemes, and so don't count."

So basically you’re looking for unique combinations of phonemes that don’t fit existing words?

Bleebloo! Nooknaff! https://youtu.be/dlDZO2RqErs

(Ergative commented on behalf of Teresa, the OP. Teresa hasn't added any further clarification since msg 9.)

Cheryl wrote: "(Ergative commented on behalf of Teresa, the OP. Teresa hasn't added any further clarification since msg 9.)"

I have totally lost track. Thanks.

Although rereading the OP looks like Ergative is correct on compound words like “elsewhen” or “timestream”.

I do wonder about words like “sophont”. It feels like a real word but was made up by Poul Anderson. (Or maybe his wife. I forget.)

the changing of language and creation of new words when the old ones don't quite fit has been going on forever, shakespeare did this fairly commonly
https://www.grammarly.com/blog/15-wor...

There are a ton of made up words in Neil Stephenson's Anathem but all of them are based on Latin or Greek roots so even though they are new words you know what they mean without having to be told.