As a living language, English is continually changing and this means that new words and new meanings are always coming into the language. While English borrows some words from other languages, there are times when English-speakers invent or create new words. A newly created word which has not yet become a part of regular usage is known as a neologism. In the 1980s, comedian Rich Hall invented the word sniglet. A sniglet is a word that isn’t in the dictionary, but should be and a snigletologist is a person who sits around thinking up sniglets because they don’t have anything better to do.
Rich Hall introduced sniglets as a part of the HBO comedy series Not Necessarily the News. Hall’s sniglets, together with those submitted by his fans, were compiled into several books. A sampling of sniglets is shown below.
Bozone: The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
Fetchplex : State of momentary confusion in a woozle whose owner has faked throwing the ball and palmed it behind his back.
Furbling : Having to wander through a maze of ropes at an airport, movie theater, or bank even when you are the only person in line.
Idiomit: A person who obliterates the correct phrasing of an idiom.
Mustgo: Any item of food that has been sitting in the refrigerator so long it has become a science project.
Ocrapment: The attachment that you send with the second email after being informed that you failed to attach it to your first email.
Snackmosphere: The empty but explosive layer of air at the top of a potato chip bag.
Snacktrek: The peculiar habit, when searching for a snack, of constantly returning to the refrigerator in hopes that something new will have materialized.
Spiffenparken: To park your car in the most desirable place (generally in a just-vacated space close to the entryway of your destination)
Table Snorkeling: Frantic gesticulations when one bites into hot food and has to take in air to cool it off.
Some additional neologisms: 15 Made-Up Words
Welcome to Saturday Street Prophets. This is an open thread where snigletologists are welcome. New sniglets are encouraged: don’t be afraid to give it a try.
If you don’t feel like doing sniglets, feel free to talk about what’s happening in your life. As usual, one of our standard questions is: What’s for dinner?