I’ve been reading a book on politics lately, and, as such things are wont to do, it has caused me a great deal of aggravation—nay, downright anger. I need to take a break from politics, so you get to read about language today. Specifically, I’d like to write about my tendency to coin new words in my writing—or, at the very least, to use words that don’t exist in the dictionary, or to come up with new meanings for words (although this last one is more for fun than anything else).
This actually began a few years ago. I was writing, and I wanted to describe a character’s speech as basically meek and quiet due to fear. The words flowed as I typed, and what appeared on the screen was “trepidly.” What appeared right afterward was a red squiggly line beneath the word, indicating that the word processor didn’t recognize it. Surely, I thought to myself, this must be a word. After all, if one can be intrepid, one must be able to be trepid, as well. I consulted my OED—or, rather, my NOAD—only to find that it was true: “trepid” isn’t a recognized word. What to do?
Well, I’m a writer, and that requires creativity. So, I decided to keep the word. I mean, really, it’s recognizable in context, right? So it works. Since that time, I’ve used other words, often similar to the example given above, where a stem is recognized by the dictionary only with a prefix attached. Contrarily, I’ve often put the prefix “un-” in front of a word, only to have the dictionary tell me it’s wrong, too. A common example is “unserved,” as in “Justice went unserved.” It’s not in my dictionary, but I know it’s a word. Hell, “un-” is an all-purpose additive, in my opinion. (Well, not entirely, but that’s a longer post.)
Not only does such willingness to buck the dictionary’s authority give writing a richer flavor, but it’s also fun. Another fun thing to do is simply come up with a new meaning for a word. As a wrap-up to this post (which I’d like to keep fairly brief), I’d like to offer one of those new definitions that I’ve been mulling about, and I hope it is adopted into common speech.
Once, in my old MySpace blog (in an entry now deleted), I wrote of the word “defenestration.” I won’t go into great detail. I’d just like to say to all the Facebook people out there: It’s not a sexual reference. It means, rather, “to throw someone or something out a window.” It comes from the Latin prefix de-, meaning “off” or “from,” and the Latin word fenestra, meaning “window.” Now, given this etymology, I propose a second meaning: to switch from Microsoft® Windows® to another operating system.
Any takers?
That’s all for now. I’d appreciate any responses and/or feedback related to the words I’ve set forth herein or words that other people use in interesting ways.
