don't forget that Tolkien Also Popularized the plural "Dwarves" as opposed to "dwarfs"! his editors would frequently correct this thinking it was a mistake until he explicitly stated DO NOT
I see the word "grok" used in nerdy circles quite often, it's a word from "stranger in a strange land" that means to deeply/fully understand something.
Ironically quite similar to the term ‘Grockle’ which comes from Southwest England and refers to tourists(in a derogatory manner) which comes from 1964 film ‘The System’ set in Torquay, Devon.
actually, if I recall from the text of SIASL, Heinlein gave the *literal* definition of grok as “to drink”, it’s connotation as “to imbibe something so deeply as to make part of oneself, thereby gaining the fullest possible understanding of it” follows metaphorically
@@cmolodiets Created or invented, with the connotation that the thing that was made up is somehow invalid thereby, as in, "That's not a real x, it's a made-up x."
Just thought I ought to let you know, in British slang, NONCE means sex offender. It comes from old prison slang originally used by Prison Officers I believe. It's actually an acronym for, "Not On Normal Courtyard Exercise," as sex offenders had to be kept separate from the normal prison population for fear of being beaten up or killed.
I'm always suspicious of acronyms as origins of words. Usually, they come from a technical source so we have scuba, radar, laser etc. I tried finding out the origins of "nonce" and the "once" meaning is much older. Wiktionary proposes rhyming "ponce" or a vowel change in "nance" (as in "nancy boy"). Either or both are more likely than an acronym.
I really tend to doubt acronym explanations for words older than the earlier twentieth century. Consider the supposed etymologies for "f**k" even when there are related words in German and Norwegian. And what of the proud Dutch name "Fokker", which just means "animal breeder"? I'm not saying you're wrong, just saying I need documentation.
Ok, I didn't want to say it on here, but for clarity, the reason I know this was that I was a prison officer for 17 years, and that is the origin of that slang term for sex offender. I would absolutely grant that it's other definition, specified here, could well be older, but the acronym in the context of British slang is correct. Hope that helps. 🙂
Not necessarily single words but rather names for things; H.G. Wells is credited with coining the terms "time machine" and "atomic bomb" in his science fiction works :)
"Time Machine" is not one word but when people says it they always know it means a machine that has to do with traveling time, even if the combination of time and machine could mean something like a clock, so while it's technically not a word, H.G Wells definitely popularized the combination.
@@Jeff_isAverage Shakespeare didn't create practically any words, he was just the first to write down the vulgar english that was spoken by the peasents, which already contained words like gossiping and bedroom. Most of the new words were already in wide use by the lower classes, they were just considered "incorrect english" by scholars.
Fun fact: 18 percent of words commonly used in American English have horribly inappropriate meanings in the U.K. Funner fact: 99 percent of all derogatory terms in American English have little known but inoffensive meanings in the U.K.
@@JeighNeither Having certain slang terms, that we use colloquially, that you don't like, doesn't make us idiots. The same logic could be applied when every other anglophone country mentions 'rubbers' and Americans/Canadians start snickering like schoolchildren
Having never seen it in writing, I always thought that was just the UK pronunciation of "nance", being short for Nancy, being a derogatory (and inappropriate) term in US English for an effeminate male. Any idea on origin of the UK usage, apart from conversations about lexicography?
I will always love how Gary Larson invented a term "Thagomizer" in his Far Side comic to describe the spikes on the end of some dinosaur tails, and later it was adopted by Paleontologists for the very same reason (as no one thought to name them before that point).
I started my academic career studying English literature. Over time found myself becoming a “science-smith,” focusing on experimental psychology and forensics. Your channel has sparked in me the same excitement I felt about the English language when I was younger, and the excitement I feel now with science. I can’t get enough! Thank you!
@@tojiko6868 that’s not it though. The joke is that “fetching” was once a slang term for “sexually attractive” as in “she’s very fetching in that bathing suit”. That’s the sense in which Gretchen is using the word in the movie Mean Girls. She’s attempting to bring back a shortened version of very dated slang, but nobody likes it.
I remember reading that Isaac Asimov accidentally created the word "robotics", assuming that it was already a real word, similar to "optics", "electronics", "sonics", or "economics". Not sure if it's true, but I'm sure that must have happened many times in the history of language.
I'm sure it has. I've done it -- used a word which I'm sure is real (often by adding a prefix or suffix that appears to make sense, or turning a noun into a verb or vice versa) only to discover that it isn't a word at all.
That's something I love about the English language in particular, you can get away with making up a word if it has the right vibe for what you're going for
Part of the reason _scientist_ was chosen - and quickly preferred by academic minds - was a deliberate effort to identify it as something distinctly different and apart from the occult. To separate chemistry from alchemy, astronomy from astrology, etc. Terms like _natural philosopher_ and _empirical logician_ and _mathematical physic_ were just too unwieldy for the lecture halls (and eventually referred to more specific fields of study).
smile-inducing moment: at about 1:22, Shakespeare's quill drooped as he heard that the list of words he'd created went from two thousand-plus to, um, not so many.
Another origin story I heard for "nerd" is that it came from some college (U of Pennsylvania, IIRC, but the actual college doesn't necessarily matter to this story): They spelled the word "knurd" - for a typically brainy, academic type who spends all his time studying and has little to no social life. It comes from spelling the word "drunk" backwards. The cool kids would go out and party and socialize and get drunk, while the knurds were those who didn't party or drink or socialize. Perhaps because of Dr. Seuss, the nerd spelling eventually became standard. After all, there's a party to get to! We don't have time to add a silent 'k'!
Nerd with a "k" seems like a more appropriate way to spell it. That is, emphasizing need a silent letter for the "actual" spelling seems like a nerdy grammar-police thing to do. *not harping on anyone. This is a strict description of myself and anyone like me
Actually, knurd is the state you're in when you're beyond sober and need to drink something merely to become sober. It is not a pleasant state as reality becomes so clear to you that it feels like you're being hit by a stone wrapped in a thin slice of lemon. PS: Sorry to mix authors here ;) PS2: knurd is Terry Pratchett, the lemon slice is Douglas Adams.
"Serigraph" is a word describing a printing process using silk screens to print a work of art, one color at a time in series. The term was coined by Anthony Velonis, my father.
@@MotionWZRDdid you know the ‘pirate’ voice is just a Southwest English dialect? Its thought of as the distinct pirate voice because a lot of English privateers cam from Southwest England including of course the most famous Sir Francis Drake.
Thank you for featuring Čapek! Fun fact: It was actually brother of Karel Čapek, modernist painter Josef Čapek, who created the word. When Karel was writing his play R. U. R., he asked him for help with creating the term for an artificial worker and Josef delivered.
@@risaswonderland Yeah! And they had eventually written jointly a play Pictures from the Insects' Life (Ze života hmyzu). Also he was an author of Czech well-known fairy-tales. So true!! I'm glad to have found those comments there!!
I love randomly, every few months, discovering a new channel, and finding that it is yet another pbs backed production. I'm pretty sure they're single handedly responsible for 50% of my online time at this point.
For me, I find George Orwell invention of words in 1984 very impressing. He has indeed put into words some very realistic concepts. I love to refer to them in my discussions.
@artugert yes newspeak is an example of the famous terms. There are also the words doublethink, thoughtcrime, thoughtpolice... and the "big brother" that indicates now something specific in the political dialogues
@@reginaldforthright805 Well i care. It seems you're the only one here who does not care. And why would you bother with writing this if you don't care ?
@@gunjfur8633 nativlang, biblaridion, artifexian, langfocus, langtimestudio. I love each and every one of these, highly recommend. This channel is just doing something different :)
"Thagomizer", the distinctive arrangement of 4 spikes on the tails of stegosaurine dinosaurs, brought to us by the one and only Gary Larson. Best word origin ever.
@@stevesmith291 well, all words were made up, obviously. But "neo", as far as I know, refers to something that already exist and it is changed to something new.
@@johnrichardallen4470 Neo just means that something is new or recent, not necessarily that it came from modifying something else. So yes, all words were neologisms at some point.
Tolkien also invented the word "wraith", I believe. And for the german version of his tales he was adamant not just to use the existing word for elf, which was... elf. He combined it with the word "alb", which is also a mythical creature. Thus, now we have the word "Elb" to mean "tall, humanoid elves". "Elves" is also a plural Tolkien at least popularized again, for the plural of elf (by his time) was "elfs".
Tolkien did a whole lot to repopularize archaic language in modern media, and that's not to even mention him popularizing the wholesale invention of languages for dramatic purposes.
He did not invent the word “wraith”. However, he did invent the modern meaning and usage. Prior to Tolkien, “to wraith” was used as we would use the verb “to distort”. He made it a noun, and associated it firmly with the idea of an evil ghostly figure. Hence we now call vengeful spirits “wraiths”. He actually wrote a whole essay about why he chose the name “Ringwraith” for these creatures. It’s fascinating, well worth a read if you can get your hands on it.
The "elves" vs "elfs" one is incorrect. According to Ngram "elves" has always been the more popular plural for "elf". He did however repopularize "dwarves" as opposed to "dwarfs" by accident, later defending it saying that "dwarves" fit better alongside "elves". The plural "dwarves" is still only used in a fantastical context, where it has since become significantly more popular, real people with dwarfism are still dwarfs.
“This may not be a tremendous loss to literature “…Dr Seuss was something very special amongst kids’ authors, although I must admit I don’t know these particular books.
@@Reverend_Salem One of the books "On Beyond Zebra" is one of my favorite Dr. Seuss books. Even if they weren't selling well, they could have printed a small number of them and still made a profit. Nothing in any of the books crossed the line.
I've got one to add: "Utopia" was invented by Sir Thomas Moore in his novel of the same name. Literally meaning "No-Place-ia", the story describes an imaginary island where the governance is perfect or ideal. It's told as if it were a real place described to Moore by a sailor who had been there on one of his voyages, so much so that people at the time were fooled into thinking it was fact rather than fiction. Obviously it is the root of its antonym: 'dystopia' which has spawned a whole genre of books and movies nowadays. Not invented by an author, but another fun invented word is "vegan", which was invented by Donald Watson in 1944 by taking the first and last letters of "vegetarian". He felt that veganism was in this way the beginning and end of vegetarianism.
actually, "utopia" doesn't just mean "no place". It's a pun, sounding most like the greek for "Good/Perfect Place" while also sort of sounding like the greek for "No Place"
@legathar8558 You got your trivia mixed up at some point. Utopia absolutely literally means "no place". That the English pronunciations for Greek prefixes u- and eu- had merged (together with words featuring the latter being much more common) is why lots of people misunderstood it as "good place" and how it acquired its modern, non-literal meaning of "perfect place", from which dystopia ("bad place") is derived as an antonym.
There was a brief time when both "Eutopia" and "Utopia" were used, pronounced identically, but with different meanings. "Eutopia" was used to optimistically refer to a genuinely good and attainable state of society. The only famous person I have ever read of using the word "Eutopia" is John Adams.
I have a ‘friend’ named Stacey Gass. She has a sassy personality. I wanted to look up the etymology of her last name so I googled it. I found the word ‘sassigassity’, a hapax legomenon, which is a word that exists only one time in all of recorded literature. It means ‘audacity with attitude’, also an aptronym. This word appeared in a Dickens short story, and the word remains as one-of-a-kind as she is!
My favorite is VORPAL. It has no meaning yet it sounds badass when used to describe a weapon. The mere words VORPAL SWORD are enough for you to understand you are dealing with a legendary weapon and you'll not want to fight who's wielding it.
@@BonaparteBardithion Possibly derived from the word "snicker-snee", meaning a cut-and-thrust sword... (PS: I can't help thinking of the fictitious cereal in _Peanuts_ : "Snicker Snacks")
It was the title of a short story that appeared in Amazing Stories in 1983. The term was popularized by Gardner Dozois, the editor of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. Dozois was apparently the first to use it to denote a literary subgenre.
Cheers for including “Pandemonium.” Incidentally, Milton also coined the phrase “all Hell broken loose.” See Book IV, lines 917-18 of PARADISE LOST: “…wherefore with thee / Came not all Hell broke loose?”
My favorite episode yet. I absolutely love word origins, & watching how they can grow to great heights, or fizzle out & fade into obscurity, just like people can! Sometimes I feel this channel meanders from it's mission statement, but this episode is on point. Keep 'em coming please!
Ooh, I got a heart from the channel 💕 My day is made! I was even a bit constructively critical, but in the kindest way. Still, that tells you how cool they are, & of course they would be, because they read! They understand the world isn't binary, thanks to their common sense, but also because of a life lead by literature. It will bring you happiness.
Omg, the love is over-flowing! This is my new GOATED channel now, (thought you might appreciate that I added this shiny new word which has evolved it's way into the zeitgeist lately), & when I make my annual pbs donation, I'm going to say I owe it all to their amazing TH-cam channel "Storied".
I just taught my (French) husband the word chortle yesterday! It's the only way to describe our 6-month-old baby's peals of laughter when we nom his tummy. Thanks, Mr. Carroll!
@@abigailoverton7610 I think most here in the states just assumed it was a synonym for one's navel or hiney. Don't you guys refer to your mates as "cunts" over there? That term would make a lot of Americans cringe in the same way
@@waynewalters426 haha yea, i think its kinda different though cause the word has the same anatomical meaning its just used different socially. on the other hand i remember reading the phrase ‘sitting on our fannies’ i Roald Dahl book and genuinely thinking he was referring to female genitals. Little me was very amused and confused.
"First World Problems" was from a book around 1980. I forget the book but I know that from there it went into a Matthew Good Band song in the mid 90's and then became popular around 2002.
Fun fact, the word Robot was first used by Karel Čapek but it was made up by his brother Josef Čapek, who was also a writer but more importantly a painter
Well, not really made up from scratch, more like adapted and used in a narrower sense (it's a shortening of the preexisting word "robota", which has the same root as the German word "arbeit"). It's a bit like "droid", which is a shortening of "android" with a narrower meaning.
Oxford dictionary includes the word "Stan", which means a huge fan of something (also ment in a bad way). It was created by Eminem after his hit-song "Stan" where he sings about a toxic fan. Maybe not an author and maybe its still a bit early, but still cool
@@giorgoskonstantinou_animation We are both correct though. It is indeed a combination of the words stalker (pardon me for making a mistake on that one) and fan. We all know stalking is bad (everyone knows the meaning of the so I am not going to explain), and combining that with word fan, and that is how the word stan exist.
This series is amazing. What I’ve wanted for so long but even better than what I imagined. Erica, you and the writers are astoundingly clever, clear and funny. Many thanks!
I cannot believe you just said the loss of 6 Dr. Seuss books was not a huge literary loss. That’s the loss of pure ART!!! Great video tho very interesting
Nice catch! I was too busy reciting “Paradife loft” to notice that it was “Printed, and are to be fold by Peter Parker.” I guess it beats doing freelance work for J. Jonah Jameson.
This gave me big Prindle flashbacks lol that book gave my friends and I SUCH an introduction to linguistic freedom as kids that we practically had our own language, most of which I remember 20 years later!
I’m surprised she didn’t bring up the term “portmanteau” when talking about Lewis Carroll and the joining or blending of two words together to create a new word with a new meaning.
John Milton created the word “Outer Space” - before that it was called the heavens!! He also created words like terrific, stunning, deluded, damp and bickering!
Dang this Doctor better be getting an Offer from a Sponsor as an Author of this show. She literally just enhanced our lease on life through lexical literature.
Because they are. When has a person actually brought up these books ever, especially separate from his Magnum Opera (Green Eggs and Ham, The Cat in the Hat, etc)
@@SalemYbor it was a pretty funny part of the book, where the main characters were joking about starting a college of nonsense topics such as the department of tetraplyoctomy.
I wanna see future english majors to do this same video for the words we're coming up with now. like "selfie" or "yeet" I wonder if students will have a special work section on abbreviations like lol, omg, ttyl, rn, tldr, ily, af, ofc, and so many others.
Well, I now know why there’s a Doom level called “Pandemonium.” I did figure out the origin of “freelancer” by picking the word apart, though. It makes me feel like a cool marauder, even though I just make art. 😂
4:44 I gave myself whiplash right there, you pronounce his name EXTREMELY well like are you sure you aren't Czech I had to show my grandmother how well you said that
I loved Lewis Carroll as a kid. I can still quote the first stanza of Jabberwocky by heart. This is how my mind's eye sees the scene: Brillig = bright sunny afternoon Slithy toves = some kind of sinuous furry snake-like or otter-like creature Gyre and gimble = to move in circles while swaying your behind. Kind of like doing the Conga. Wabe = some kind of open meadow with a green pond in the middle Mimsy = slightly sad and tired Borogroves = tree-like mournful creatures with long weeping willow-like hair Mome raths = some kind of fierce small furry round animal Outgrabe = running around growling at everything
1) I believe that "twitter" would have been pronounced a little differently in Chaucer's time. 2) "Household word" has become a household word. 3) If George Lucas can obtain a trademark on "droid" when it was already created by Mari Wolf, then he should be allowed to sue her into oblivion for her crime.
Great video, I know there are only so many authors you can cover without the video being ridiculously long but was kinda surprised that Edmund Spenser wasn't featured, with words like "blatant," "sarcasm," and "braggadochio," as well as reviving words that had fallen out of use and coming up with new uses of words like "enterprise," influence almost as high as Chaucer and Shakespeare.
I suspect that Seuss who was, after all, a cartoonist borrowed nerd from other artists who used it to describe bits and crumbs of matter that needed to be brushed off artwork before reproduction. Eraser crumbs, in particular, were called nerds. And in this usage, nerd probably came from an older word that just meant something small and inconsequential.
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don't forget that Tolkien Also Popularized the plural "Dwarves" as opposed to "dwarfs"! his editors would frequently correct this thinking it was a mistake until he explicitly stated DO NOT
Careful. Games workshop is watching.
@@Demolitiondude Of course, GW also thinks they own the term "space marine"... _First Lensman_, _Starship Troopers_, and _Aliens_ notwithstanding.
@@AHGrayLensman have you seen the new ip guidelines?
Also elves from elfs right?
You don't correct the geezer who helped write the dictionary
"That's a made-up word!"
"All words are made up..."
Hi I'm your big fan 😊
Why you're everywhere?
I came here to say that
hi jellal
@Mr Max When people reply to OP, there's no "@______" at the front of their comment.
That "actually" was GOLD. I love this series so much.
Really deserves more views like Monstrum does.
I only found this series yesterday. Such fun, and a great presenter too.
actually 🤓☝
I see the word "grok" used in nerdy circles quite often, it's a word from "stranger in a strange land" that means to deeply/fully understand something.
Used to be T-shirts that said "I Grok Spok" 🖖
Ironically quite similar to the term ‘Grockle’ which comes from Southwest England and refers to tourists(in a derogatory manner) which comes from 1964 film ‘The System’ set in Torquay, Devon.
actually, if I recall from the text of SIASL, Heinlein gave the *literal* definition of grok as “to drink”, it’s connotation as “to imbibe something so deeply as to make part of oneself, thereby gaining the fullest possible understanding of it” follows metaphorically
Heinlein also invented “free fall”
It’s crazy how words can go from being completely made up to perfectly cromulent in our modern language
I grok this.
Not crazy at all. It’s how languages grow.
Yup. All words were made up by someone at some point.
what does "made up" mean?
@@cmolodiets Created or invented, with the connotation that the thing that was made up is somehow invalid thereby, as in, "That's not a real x, it's a made-up x."
Just thought I ought to let you know, in British slang, NONCE means sex offender. It comes from old prison slang originally used by Prison Officers I believe. It's actually an acronym for, "Not On Normal Courtyard Exercise," as sex offenders had to be kept separate from the normal prison population for fear of being beaten up or killed.
I'm always suspicious of acronyms as origins of words. Usually, they come from a technical source so we have scuba, radar, laser etc. I tried finding out the origins of "nonce" and the "once" meaning is much older. Wiktionary proposes rhyming "ponce" or a vowel change in "nance" (as in "nancy boy"). Either or both are more likely than an acronym.
I really tend to doubt acronym explanations for words older than the earlier twentieth century. Consider the supposed etymologies for "f**k" even when there are related words in German and Norwegian. And what of the proud Dutch name "Fokker", which just means "animal breeder"?
I'm not saying you're wrong, just saying I need documentation.
Ok, I didn't want to say it on here, but for clarity, the reason I know this was that I was a prison officer for 17 years, and that is the origin of that slang term for sex offender. I would absolutely grant that it's other definition, specified here, could well be older, but the acronym in the context of British slang is correct. Hope that helps. 🙂
We're not responsible for the vagaries of British slang. After all, the British call cigarettes "fags."
@@DMichaelAtLarge too true 😁
Not necessarily single words but rather names for things; H.G. Wells is credited with coining the terms "time machine" and "atomic bomb" in his science fiction works :)
"Time Machine" is not one word but when people says it they always know it means a machine that has to do with traveling time, even if the combination of time and machine could mean something like a clock, so while
it's technically not a word, H.G Wells definitely popularized the combination.
@@Jeff_isAverage It is a word, I'd say. Many compound words are just spelled with spaces in them in English orthography
@@Jeff_isAverage Shakespeare didn't create practically any words, he was just the first to write down the vulgar english that was spoken by the peasents, which already contained words like gossiping and bedroom. Most of the new words were already in wide use by the lower classes, they were just considered "incorrect english" by scholars.
Didn't he also make the term "martian"?
είναι αυτό μια αναφορά στην γεωμετρική παύλα?!?!?!
oh dear, here in the UK 'nonce' is a slang term for paedophile!
She can't help it that your collective of nations is full of idiots.
Fun fact: 18 percent of words commonly used in American English have horribly inappropriate meanings in the U.K.
Funner fact: 99 percent of all derogatory terms in American English have little known but inoffensive meanings in the U.K.
@@JeighNeither Having certain slang terms, that we use colloquially, that you don't like, doesn't make us idiots. The same logic could be applied when every other anglophone country mentions 'rubbers' and Americans/Canadians start snickering like schoolchildren
Having never seen it in writing, I always thought that was just the UK pronunciation of "nance", being short for Nancy, being a derogatory (and inappropriate) term in US English for an effeminate male. Any idea on origin of the UK usage, apart from conversations about lexicography?
@@JeighNeither are you ok? Something seems to be bothering you. Had a bad day?
I will always love how Gary Larson invented a term "Thagomizer" in his Far Side comic to describe the spikes on the end of some dinosaur tails, and later it was adopted by Paleontologists for the very same reason (as no one thought to name them before that point).
As a fervent Far Side Fan, I love this comment lol
They said popular words
I started my academic career studying English literature. Over time found myself becoming a “science-smith,” focusing on experimental psychology and forensics. Your channel has sparked in me the same excitement I felt about the English language when I was younger, and the excitement I feel now with science. I can’t get enough! Thank you!
"Gretchen, stop trying to make 'fetch' happen. It's not going to happen."
If you mean as a substitute for being a less offensive word for f--k, mormons already use that to technically *not* be cussing. (also fudge)
Ugh you beat me to what I was going to comment! (Ps it's from mean girls...)
@@tojiko6868 I was raised by Mormons, and my strict-even-for-Mormons parents specifically forbade that word and "flippin'."
@@tojiko6868 that’s not it though. The joke is that “fetching” was once a slang term for “sexually attractive” as in “she’s very fetching in that bathing suit”. That’s the sense in which Gretchen is using the word in the movie Mean Girls. She’s attempting to bring back a shortened version of very dated slang, but nobody likes it.
@@golwenlothlindel somebody tell gretchen its the bee knees that she wants to bring it back
I remember reading that Isaac Asimov accidentally created the word "robotics", assuming that it was already a real word, similar to "optics", "electronics", "sonics", or "economics". Not sure if it's true, but I'm sure that must have happened many times in the history of language.
"Do Androids dream of robotic sheep?"
sounds like a good candidate for that. Wait, was that even by Asimov?
I tend to mix up things.
@@MrRizeAG ahhh, my brain tends to do that sometimes.
@@MrRizeAG isn't that PKD?
@@SpiderMan-gf1lc it is
I'm sure it has. I've done it -- used a word which I'm sure is real (often by adding a prefix or suffix that appears to make sense, or turning a noun into a verb or vice versa) only to discover that it isn't a word at all.
As a Brit, I found it very weird to hear "nonce" used so casually in an American accent and without derogatory meaning.
I'm an American yet I'm familiar with the British meaning so I was thrown off as well.
Same 😭
i did too!
Yeah same
I’m not even British and I still giggled like a teenage boy lol.
That's something I love about the English language in particular, you can get away with making up a word if it has the right vibe for what you're going for
Here's one: "He was looking rather skrangly"; from the vibe of the word alone you can tell what it means
@@m0nkeywrench dirty, messy, disheveled but in an odd sort of way? I find this word perfectly cromulent
“What do you do?”
“I’m a contractor” *stabs with spear*
that sounds more like a "contract killer".
I would love to live in an alternate world where experts in science are called “Scienomancers”
Perhaps they would go on to discover scienobacteria
Based on the latin form scientia, I imagine it would be more something like "scientomancers" or "sciencomancers"
Part of the reason _scientist_ was chosen - and quickly preferred by academic minds - was a deliberate effort to identify it as something distinctly different and apart from the occult. To separate chemistry from alchemy, astronomy from astrology, etc. Terms like _natural philosopher_ and _empirical logician_ and _mathematical physic_ were just too unwieldy for the lecture halls (and eventually referred to more specific fields of study).
but -mancer would imply divination.
I like that the original term was "natural philosopher". It's a mouthful, but it sounds lovely.
The Shakespeare animation continuously popping up with his giant smile is infectious.
His Willpower moment was cute
smile-inducing moment: at about 1:22, Shakespeare's quill drooped as he heard that the list of words he'd created went from two thousand-plus to, um, not so many.
And the "Will Power" part was adorable!! ^_^
Yeah
Another origin story I heard for "nerd" is that it came from some college (U of Pennsylvania, IIRC, but the actual college doesn't necessarily matter to this story): They spelled the word "knurd" - for a typically brainy, academic type who spends all his time studying and has little to no social life. It comes from spelling the word "drunk" backwards. The cool kids would go out and party and socialize and get drunk, while the knurds were those who didn't party or drink or socialize. Perhaps because of Dr. Seuss, the nerd spelling eventually became standard. After all, there's a party to get to! We don't have time to add a silent 'k'!
Nerd with a "k" seems like a more appropriate way to spell it. That is, emphasizing need a silent letter for the "actual" spelling seems like a nerdy grammar-police thing to do.
*not harping on anyone. This is a strict description of myself and anyone like me
Time to grammer correct everyone that is is Knurd
@@danzjz3923 aaaaahahah, i see what ye did there!
Smurf nerf buff
Actually, knurd is the state you're in when you're beyond sober and need to drink something merely to become sober. It is not a pleasant state as reality becomes so clear to you that it feels like you're being hit by a stone wrapped in a thin slice of lemon.
PS: Sorry to mix authors here ;)
PS2: knurd is Terry Pratchett, the lemon slice is Douglas Adams.
"Serigraph" is a word describing a printing process using silk screens to print a work of art, one color at a time in series. The term was coined by Anthony Velonis, my father.
If true, it must be damn awesome to claim that your dad is literaly a wordsmith.
@@NephiylusBaphson Sericum is the Latin word for silk, so it's not that far fetched.
@@wodan74 And sericulture is the raising of silkworms for silk.
Major Flex
How do you feel about serigraphy being used in most languages but english is just "screenprint" ?
I love the idea of creating me own words for things that aren’t yet described as a concept
I don’t know if you misspelled my but I read that with a pirate voice
@@MotionWZRD STOPPP cause i did too HAHAHA i started reading normally in the first half but after the "me" the rest came in a pirate voice 😭😭
@@MotionWZRDdid you know the ‘pirate’ voice is just a Southwest English dialect? Its thought of as the distinct pirate voice because a lot of English privateers cam from Southwest England including of course the most famous Sir Francis Drake.
@@deeznoots6241 interesting
Putting on glasses just for the "Actually" bit. What a nerkle.
*~*Actually*~* I do wear glasses 95% of the time 🤓- Dr. B
Not going to lie, Sciencesmith sounds kinda cool.
What about sciencifics
@@thecommenter8751 Sounds more like a field of study than a person
Going to head to the knowledge forge and smith some science.
@@thecommenter8751 Originally science fiction was called scientifiction by Hugo Gernsback
Sounds like a fantasy term.
Thank you for featuring Čapek!
Fun fact: It was actually brother of Karel Čapek, modernist painter Josef Čapek, who created the word. When Karel was writing his play R. U. R., he asked him for help with creating the term for an artificial worker and Josef delivered.
Ano, děkuji🤌🏻👌🏻
Interesting fact: Josef Čapek is also a writer. He wasn't just a painter. He wrote for example a story called Země mnoha jmen (Country of many words).
I've been literally searching for this comment in the section, trying to find out whether I'm supposed to post it myself. :D
@@risaswonderland Yeah! And they had eventually written jointly a play Pictures from the Insects' Life (Ze života hmyzu). Also he was an author of Czech well-known fairy-tales. So true!! I'm glad to have found those comments there!!
Better "robot" than "labor".
I love randomly, every few months, discovering a new channel, and finding that it is yet another pbs backed production. I'm pretty sure they're single handedly responsible for 50% of my online time at this point.
For me, I find George Orwell invention of words in 1984 very impressing. He has indeed put into words some very realistic concepts. I love to refer to them in my discussions.
Such as?
@@artugert Newspeak for example, very popular
@artugert yes newspeak is an example of the famous terms. There are also the words doublethink, thoughtcrime, thoughtpolice... and the "big brother" that indicates now something specific in the political dialogues
@@sm6756Newspeak and doublethink have even been combined into 'doublespeak'
It is nice to be reminded how creative you can be while writing. Even the words themselves don't limit you, if you use them well enough.
This is so true that I can only fragwuiopitise with everything you just said.
I love that she pronounced "Karel Čapek" perfectly.
Not perfectly but pretty close
No one cares
@@reginaldforthright805 Well i care. It seems you're the only one here who does not care. And why would you bother with writing this if you don't care ?
@@reginaldforthright805 it's really about representation of a language and a culture here my msn
sounds yes, but the wrong sillables were stressed
As an an amateur linguist this channel fills a niche that other language channels don't
Like what type of other language channels?
@@gunjfur8633 nativlang, biblaridion, artifexian, langfocus, langtimestudio. I love each and every one of these, highly recommend. This channel is just doing something different :)
this is why there’s no point in complaining about new lingo, it’s just how human language has always worked
4:22 you kept the "uhh" in. Well done. That is impressive comedy.
"700 years later, we're the encaged birds, tweeting our takes into the void"
Truly Accurate in every Points
That "actually" with the imaginary glasses made me chortle.
What does it mean ? Is it a reference to something ?
@@idk-dz just an offensive stereotype of people with glasses
"Thagomizer", the distinctive arrangement of 4 spikes on the tails of stegosaurine dinosaurs, brought to us by the one and only Gary Larson. Best word origin ever.
After the late Thag Simmons.
I love the fact that after Larson coined it, the rest of the paleotological world picked it up and ran with it.
@@marieroberts5458 nerds rule! 🤓
@@KJ-of6lf we do indeed! ;-)
Poor Thag!
Okay this lady is a great presenter for the show. More of her please.
This is actually very interesting, I didn't know any of these words were originally neologisms. We usually don't think about hahahaha excellent video
All words were originally neologisms.
@@stevesmith291 well, all words were made up, obviously. But "neo", as far as I know, refers to something that already exist and it is changed to something new.
@@johnrichardallen4470 Neo just means that something is new or recent, not necessarily that it came from modifying something else. So yes, all words were neologisms at some point.
i can’t be the only one from the UK who started hysterically laughing from its being called nonce help 😭😭
Fr 😂
same, american scholars seem to love nonces
Not just the UK. It's used in that sense in Australia too.
I mean do UK linguists not use this word to describe the same concept?
@@jouiboui probably not since it’s pretty unanimous about what that word means in slang ig
Tolkien also invented the word "wraith", I believe. And for the german version of his tales he was adamant not just to use the existing word for elf, which was... elf. He combined it with the word "alb", which is also a mythical creature. Thus, now we have the word "Elb" to mean "tall, humanoid elves". "Elves" is also a plural Tolkien at least popularized again, for the plural of elf (by his time) was "elfs".
Tolkien did a whole lot to repopularize archaic language in modern media, and that's not to even mention him popularizing the wholesale invention of languages for dramatic purposes.
He did not invent the word “wraith”. However, he did invent the modern meaning and usage. Prior to Tolkien, “to wraith” was used as we would use the verb “to distort”. He made it a noun, and associated it firmly with the idea of an evil ghostly figure. Hence we now call vengeful spirits “wraiths”. He actually wrote a whole essay about why he chose the name “Ringwraith” for these creatures. It’s fascinating, well worth a read if you can get your hands on it.
The "elves" vs "elfs" one is incorrect. According to Ngram "elves" has always been the more popular plural for "elf". He did however repopularize "dwarves" as opposed to "dwarfs" by accident, later defending it saying that "dwarves" fit better alongside "elves". The plural "dwarves" is still only used in a fantastical context, where it has since become significantly more popular, real people with dwarfism are still dwarfs.
@@jedisilvr In the German translation of Tolkien's work the word "elb" is used in place of "elf".
@@jedisilvr The original comment specified very clearly what language they were talking about.
“This may not be a tremendous loss to literature “…Dr Seuss was something very special amongst kids’ authors, although I must admit I don’t know these particular books.
and iirc they weren't even in publication at the time. and haven't done well in a while
@@Reverend_Salem One of the books "On Beyond Zebra" is one of my favorite Dr. Seuss books. Even if they weren't selling well, they could have printed a small number of them and still made a profit. Nothing in any of the books crossed the line.
I've got one to add: "Utopia" was invented by Sir Thomas Moore in his novel of the same name. Literally meaning "No-Place-ia", the story describes an imaginary island where the governance is perfect or ideal. It's told as if it were a real place described to Moore by a sailor who had been there on one of his voyages, so much so that people at the time were fooled into thinking it was fact rather than fiction.
Obviously it is the root of its antonym: 'dystopia' which has spawned a whole genre of books and movies nowadays.
Not invented by an author, but another fun invented word is "vegan", which was invented by Donald Watson in 1944 by taking the first and last letters of "vegetarian". He felt that veganism was in this way the beginning and end of vegetarianism.
actually, "utopia" doesn't just mean "no place". It's a pun, sounding most like the greek for "Good/Perfect Place" while also sort of sounding like the greek for "No Place"
@legathar8558 You got your trivia mixed up at some point. Utopia absolutely literally means "no place". That the English pronunciations for Greek prefixes u- and eu- had merged (together with words featuring the latter being much more common) is why lots of people misunderstood it as "good place" and how it acquired its modern, non-literal meaning of "perfect place", from which dystopia ("bad place") is derived as an antonym.
There was a brief time when both "Eutopia" and "Utopia" were used, pronounced identically, but with different meanings. "Eutopia" was used to optimistically refer to a genuinely good and attainable state of society. The only famous person I have ever read of using the word "Eutopia" is John Adams.
@@petroglyph888mcgregor2
Eutopia sounds like it could be the name of a music festival organized by the European Union...
I have a ‘friend’ named Stacey Gass. She has a sassy personality. I wanted to look up the etymology of her last name so I googled it. I found the word ‘sassigassity’, a hapax legomenon, which is a word that exists only one time in all of recorded literature. It means ‘audacity with attitude’, also an aptronym. This word appeared in a Dickens short story, and the word remains as one-of-a-kind as she is!
I wonder if it's related to 'sagacity'...
My favorite is VORPAL. It has no meaning yet it sounds badass when used to describe a weapon. The mere words VORPAL SWORD are enough for you to understand you are dealing with a legendary weapon and you'll not want to fight who's wielding it.
My favorite word from the poem is the onomatopoeic "snicker snak".
@@BonaparteBardithion Possibly derived from the word "snicker-snee", meaning a cut-and-thrust sword...
(PS: I can't help thinking of the fictitious cereal in _Peanuts_ : "Snicker Snacks")
Mine are manxome and gyre.
Where is it from
@@robinrehlinghaus1944 Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll
I remember "Cyberpunk", coined by Bruce Bethke in the 80's.
Wow- I thought it was coined by a different Bruce (Bruce Sterling)! Cool, learn something new every day 😎
It was the title of a short story that appeared in Amazing Stories in 1983. The term was popularized by Gardner Dozois, the editor of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. Dozois was apparently the first to use it to denote a literary subgenre.
Making the word "nonce" out of children's blocks may not have been the best design choice
Only in the UK.
I can't describe why, but I love the face cartoon Shakespeare is making.
The word nonce at 0:28 in the children alphabet sorta font is so ironic. Lol my fellow brits know what im talking about. 🤣🇬🇧
It’s maddddd
Nonce? 😂
Imagine the alternate universe where Whewill called "scientists" "scientologists" 🤣
Cheers for including “Pandemonium.” Incidentally, Milton also coined the phrase “all Hell broken loose.” See Book IV, lines 917-18 of PARADISE LOST: “…wherefore with thee / Came not all Hell broke loose?”
As someone who has lived in the Czech Republic’s for over 15 years, I can definitely tell you that they are proud of Čapek inventing the word ‘robot’.
Hell yeah we are! :D
Whoever put nonce in play blocks knew what they were doing 😂.
Didn't mention Orwell, like "double think", "big brother" and "cold war".
These aren't words, but expressions.
Doublethink is one word
@@chanterelle483 more like compound words than expressions, but still not exactly one word
She also didn't mention Shakespeare coined "cuckhold".
There's also, for modern times, the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrow, whose whole purpose is to invent neologisms. Sonder, you may know it.
Koenig's clips are all profound little pieces of art, each with evocative visuals accompanying his narration.
@Kot-Kojote Working on a book and periodically updates the Tumblr.
Sonder is German tho
Haven't seen a better crafted video in a long time. Absolutely wonderful!
Suggested randomly to me by youtube today, and, frankly, one of the most entertaining and well made videos I have seen in this platform to date.
I'm offended that she called banned Dr. Seuss books "not a tremendous loss of literature". Smh
My favorite episode yet. I absolutely love word origins, & watching how they can grow to great heights, or fizzle out & fade into obscurity, just like people can! Sometimes I feel this channel meanders from it's mission statement, but this episode is on point. Keep 'em coming please!
Ooh, I got a heart from the channel 💕 My day is made! I was even a bit constructively critical, but in the kindest way. Still, that tells you how cool they are, & of course they would be, because they read! They understand the world isn't binary, thanks to their common sense, but also because of a life lead by literature. It will bring you happiness.
I actually ended up watching this again, after I got the heart, & there are so many clever references that I missed first time around.
Omg, the love is over-flowing! This is my new GOATED channel now, (thought you might appreciate that I added this shiny new word which has evolved it's way into the zeitgeist lately), & when I make my annual pbs donation, I'm going to say I owe it all to their amazing TH-cam channel "Storied".
Try learning about a language not as new as English.
@Erta Why do you say that?
I just taught my (French) husband the word chortle yesterday! It's the only way to describe our 6-month-old baby's peals of laughter when we nom his tummy. Thanks, Mr. Carroll!
I would like to add Isaac Asimov to this list: he is credited for the first use of the word "Robotics" in writing.
And didn't even realize it; he just assumed that was already the word for it.
@@NovaSaber great way to coin a word, that. You get very sensible additions that way.
Okay but... Billy Shakespeare's cartoon lashes were on fleek!
6:21
"Memes, the DNA of the soul"
No one came up with this comment yet?
Gottem
“Doktor, turn off my meme inhibitors”
Context really matters for some words. I myself have seen a Scotsman shoot beer out his nose at the mention of a "fanny-pack".
lmao can say the same fir aussies its so weird when americans say it in movies
@@abigailoverton7610 I think most here in the states just assumed it was a synonym for one's navel or hiney. Don't you guys refer to your mates as "cunts" over there? That term would make a lot of Americans cringe in the same way
@@waynewalters426 haha yea, i think its kinda different though cause the word has the same anatomical meaning its just used different socially. on the other hand i remember reading the phrase ‘sitting on our fannies’ i Roald Dahl book and genuinely thinking he was referring to female genitals. Little me was very amused and confused.
You know us Czech bros were waiting for Karel Čapek
It was actually Karel Čapek’s brother, Josef, who created Robot, Karel was just the first person to publish it.
"First World Problems" was from a book around 1980. I forget the book but I know that from there it went into a Matthew Good Band song in the mid 90's and then became popular around 2002.
The word "nonce" written in kids blocks threw me off so bad 😅
Fun fact, the word Robot was first used by Karel Čapek but it was made up by his brother Josef Čapek, who was also a writer but more importantly a painter
Well, not really made up from scratch, more like adapted and used in a narrower sense (it's a shortening of the preexisting word "robota", which has the same root as the German word "arbeit").
It's a bit like "droid", which is a shortening of "android" with a narrower meaning.
Oxford dictionary includes the word "Stan", which means a huge fan of something (also ment in a bad way). It was created by Eminem after his hit-song "Stan" where he sings about a toxic fan. Maybe not an author and maybe its still a bit early, but still cool
It's a combination of the word 'fan' and 'stalk.'
@@fangirlmode8705 no its not haha look it up
@@giorgoskonstantinou_animation That's from what I know.
Google it
@@giorgoskonstantinou_animation We are both correct though. It is indeed a combination of the words stalker (pardon me for making a mistake on that one) and fan. We all know stalking is bad (everyone knows the meaning of the so I am not going to explain), and combining that with word fan, and that is how the word stan exist.
This series is amazing. What I’ve wanted for so long but even better than what I imagined. Erica, you and the writers are astoundingly clever, clear and funny. Many thanks!
I cannot believe you just said the loss of 6 Dr. Seuss books was not a huge literary loss. That’s the loss of pure ART!!! Great video tho very interesting
I really like the sound effect of the lightbulbs separating into two.
2:37 Anyone else get distracted to learn that Spider-Man helped bring Paradise Lost to print?
Nice catch! I was too busy reciting “Paradife loft” to notice that it was “Printed, and are to be fold by Peter Parker.” I guess it beats doing freelance work for J. Jonah Jameson.
Damn that's meta Katherine 👏🏽
@@SupercriticalSnake "Paradise loft" also known as "the struggle to gain the best estate"
I never really gave much thought to etymology, but this show is so absolutely fascinating that I want to look into it more
Tolkien also popularised "dwarves" as a plural of "dwarf", which has become a plague on astronomy forums.
6:10 that is such a genius piece of audio engineering
This gave me big Prindle flashbacks lol that book gave my friends and I SUCH an introduction to linguistic freedom as kids that we practically had our own language, most of which I remember 20 years later!
Girl that’s so raven
I’m surprised she didn’t bring up the term “portmanteau” when talking about Lewis Carroll and the joining or blending of two words together to create a new word with a new meaning.
John Milton created the word “Outer Space” - before that it was called the heavens!! He also created words like terrific, stunning, deluded, damp and bickering!
I get so excited when these videos pop up, and I'm never disappointed!
Dang this Doctor better be getting an Offer from a Sponsor as an Author of this show. She literally just enhanced our lease on life through lexical literature.
Love how entertaining you made your videos
0:22
British people: AYYYOOOO
So true
I know brudda it’s madddd
Isn't Paradise Lost also the first known usage of "All hell broke loose"?
Really like the Otherworlds series! Can't wait for the next one!
Great , so one day Chungus will have legitimacy ? Saints preserve us .
It's a recognizable proper noun, but chonk and heckin' chonker have a better chance of permanent adoption because they're easier to widely use.
You're not ready for "sussy little baka"
@@BonaparteBardithion a chonking big chungus
“While this may not be a tremendous loss to literature” - so flippantly stated. 👏👏👏
Agree. Trying sanitize history and literature engages in perpetuating a delusion as well.
Because they are. When has a person actually brought up these books ever, especially separate from his Magnum Opera (Green Eggs and Ham, The Cat in the Hat, etc)
“Stop trying to make fetch happen. It’s not going to happen!”
My favorite unit unintentional movie comedy.
I know what they were joking about, but it’s not nearly as funny as what I really means....
suddenly I'm sad I don't live in a timeline where "kickie-wickie" became a commonly used word
"Not all of [Shakespeare's] words caught on..."
Now I really want to know what kickie-wickie is!
Same
It means your spouse.
My favorite author created word:
Tetraplyoctomy: the art of splitting a hair four ways
Umberto Eco, "Foucault's Pendulum"
So it's not only a french expression ? Nice !
@@SalemYbor it was a pretty funny part of the book, where the main characters were joking about starting a college of nonsense topics such as the department of tetraplyoctomy.
I am making it my life's goal to finish Shakespeare's work and make kickie-wickie happen.
I wanna see future english majors to do this same video for the words we're coming up with now. like "selfie" or "yeet"
I wonder if students will have a special work section on abbreviations like lol, omg, ttyl, rn, tldr, ily, af, ofc, and so many others.
Well, I now know why there’s a Doom level called “Pandemonium.”
I did figure out the origin of “freelancer” by picking the word apart, though. It makes me feel like a cool marauder, even though I just make art. 😂
4:44 I gave myself whiplash right there, you pronounce his name EXTREMELY well like are you sure you aren't Czech I had to show my grandmother how well you said that
Anthony Burgess's Nadsat and Orwell's Newspeak mentions would have been cool.
I did not think I would find this video SO interesting, but the pacing, presentation, and editing made this video amazing and a very interesting watch
You’ve got to admire the work these people have done on this video.
Great quality content and entertaining!
Good job!
I loved Lewis Carroll as a kid. I can still quote the first stanza of Jabberwocky by heart. This is how my mind's eye sees the scene:
Brillig = bright sunny afternoon
Slithy toves = some kind of sinuous furry snake-like or otter-like creature
Gyre and gimble = to move in circles while swaying your behind. Kind of like doing the Conga.
Wabe = some kind of open meadow with a green pond in the middle
Mimsy = slightly sad and tired
Borogroves = tree-like mournful creatures with long weeping willow-like hair
Mome raths = some kind of fierce small furry round animal
Outgrabe = running around growling at everything
1) I believe that "twitter" would have been pronounced a little differently in Chaucer's time.
2) "Household word" has become a household word.
3) If George Lucas can obtain a trademark on "droid" when it was already created by Mari Wolf, then he should be allowed to sue her into oblivion for her crime.
I don't think trademarks can be used retroactively like that.
@@foxymetroid - Right, in fact Lucas's trademark can be voided due to precedence.
I dont think he could make the case a far earlier published story did.
George lucas doesn’t own the trademark, disney does
Great video, I know there are only so many authors you can cover without the video being ridiculously long but was kinda surprised that Edmund Spenser wasn't featured, with words like "blatant," "sarcasm," and "braggadochio," as well as reviving words that had fallen out of use and coming up with new uses of words like "enterprise," influence almost as high as Chaucer and Shakespeare.
I suspect that Seuss who was, after all, a cartoonist borrowed nerd from other artists who used it to describe bits and crumbs of matter that needed to be brushed off artwork before reproduction. Eraser crumbs, in particular, were called nerds. And in this usage, nerd probably came from an older word that just meant something small and inconsequential.
How do I never come across this woman ever again?