Word Play - Neologisms and obsologisms

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, July 22nd. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Fridays are great! And Word Play Fridays are greater, because we get to enjoy that feature wherein we celebrate the gift of language.

So today, you’ll hear about neologisms—new words—but also and especially obsologisms—terms that have become obsolete, but are nonetheless clever, evocative words that maybe should never have fallen out of favor.

You’ll hear about that from George Grant with Word Play for July.

GEORGE GRANT, COMMENTATOR: Linguist and etymologist Richard Brooks has remarked, “Languages evolve, and English is no exception. Words come and go over time, and many eventually fall into obscurity.” The new vocabulary words that pass into our common parlance are called neologisms. The words that fall out of favor and out of usage are called obsologisms.

William Shakespeare has long been celebrated for the contributions he made to the English language, including for the host of new words he coined. Thanks to his plays and sonnets we have words like accommodation, aerial, amazement, apostrophe, assassination, and auspicious. And those are just the a-words.

But Shakespeare was hardly the most prolific neologist. That honor belongs to John Milton, best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost. He added at least 630 words to our common usage, almost triple the number of Shakespeare’s 229. Without Milton there would be no liturgical, no debauchery, no complacency, and no pandemonium—at least, not the words. He gave us padlock, terrific, fragrance, didactic, earthshaking, space, and sensuous.

But both Shakespeare and Milton have had some of their neologisms become obsologisms. Shakespearean inventions like “armgaunt,” meaning slender wrist, “impeticos,” meaning to put in a pocket, and “wappened,” meaning unchaste, wanton, or lewd, were words that just never caught on. Likewise, several Miltonian neologisms have fallen into disuse: “intervolve,” meaning to wind within and around, “accloy,” meaning to overfill or overstuff, and “brabble,” meaning to bicker loudly over trivialities.

Because they were coined by Shakespeare and Milton, these words can still be found in good dictionaries thanks to Samuel Johnson who compiled the first comprehensive English dictionary in 1755. Setting the standard, he wrote, “Of antiquated or obsolete words, none will be inserted but such as are to be found in authors who wrote since the accession of Elizabeth, from which we date the golden age of our language.”

“Sometimes though,” Richard Brooks lamented, “the sad fate of obscurity befalls perfectly good words—words that deserve another chance at life.” For instance, Milton’s “opiniastrous,” meaning disastrously opinionated, is a term that we could certainly put to good use today. And then there is “fudgel,” meaning pretending to work when you’re actually goofing off; or “groak,” to silently stare at someone as they eat; or “hideosity,” meaning extreme impoliteness or rudeness; or “growlery” a word created by Charles Dickens in Bleak House meaning, “a place to retreat from the world when you’re in a foul mood.”

Surely these obsologisms deserve another chance! As J.R.R. Tolkien affirmed, “The recovered-thing is not quite the same as the thing-never-lost. It is often more precious.”

I’m George Grant.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.