Sometimes you need a word that doesn’t exist. A word that just feels right. And according to Erin McKean’s article, that’s okay:
“One thing that shouldn’t stop you from using an undictionaried word: worrying about whether it’s “real” or (as Wordnik users like to say) “madeupical.” All words (aside from unintentional errors and malapropisms) are words at their birth. All you have to decide is whether the word in question is the right one for the job. Dictionaries don’t measure realness; they serve as rough proxies for the extent of a word’s use.”
That’s not to say there aren’t a lot of underused words in the English language that would be perfect for these occasions. But it’s also fun to play around with language and see what comes of it. They may not all be Shakespeare-esque gems, but they might be exactly what you need.
(image: jollyville)
LOL. This reminds me of a poem I wrote in high school. It was the story of the Princess and the Frog, only the talking frog was only a talking frog, and the Prince actually snuck into the princess’s room and made out with her. The frog ended up “beneath his boot, pancaked.”
My English teacher said that “pancake” wasn’t a verb. I fell back on, “it’s art.”
I always thought it made a good verb, though. I mean, when you say something was pancaked, you know immediately what it looks like.