LOL! We all have our linguistic pet peeves, don't we? I totally feel you. And all the steampunk/Goth words come from Poe, don't think? Sepulcher is a great one.
The example of "vermicular" is one I would definitely use, if I were still teaching logic.
Here are a couple of words for you, but first a backstory. I have noted -- possibly here, certainly elsewhere -- that I am a "Whitehead scholar", which is to say, I'm actually recognized as one of the top (Alfred North) Whitehead scholars in the world. It is a very small hill, but I am standing very close to the top of it. People who do not read Whitehead very closely often have accused him of inventing words. This is a scandal and canard; he recovered respectable English words that had fallen out of usage, but he never created neologisms. Here are two of his favorites:
"Ingression": in his usage, the way in which data enters into an active process to create the entity in its becoming.
"Prehension": the active taking in of data whereby a process in its becoming "feels" (as opposed to "knows" -- he rejected the pan-cognitivism that has so dogged Western philosophy) the data that is shaping its becoming.
I could (and, elsewhere, have) say a great deal more. But I won't.
"Pan-cognitivism," I realize, is far from self-explanatory -- I'm not even sure but that I invented the term.
It has been a fundamental thesis of Western philosophy since Descartes (possibly earlier, but I'm not convinced it was present in the Greeks), that the primary -- if not exclusive -- form of mental activity is some form of "knowing." So, it is all cognitive, all the way down. This assumption has crippled Western thought since the beginning of the modern period. It is not present in Eastern or Indigenous philosophies. In the contemporary period, some Western thinkers have come to reject it. Many of these are in the American school -- Peirce, James, Dewey, and as mentioned, Whitehead. Most Feminist philosophers, and quite a few Continentals as well, also reject the "everything is knowing" approach of pan-cognitivism.
(Whitehead was English by birth and through most of his career. But even today, the English want nothing to do with his philosophy and his metaphysical work all came out after he moved to Harvard, a move forced on him by Britain's mandatory retirement rules of the time. So he is considered part of the American canon. Their loss.)
Whitehead deliberately uses the term "feeling" to describe the primary mode of relatedness. Thus an actuality (an "actual occasion" in Whitehead-speak) "feels" the ingression of data from the world, and the how of this feeling is its prehensions.
For the pan-cognivist, I see an image and that seeing is a form of knowing, and the problem then becomes characterizing this knowledge as rational and true. For Whitehead we "feel" the world in the form of this seeing, which puts us a few steps further away from knowledge, but actually in much more intimate and immediate connection to the world. This connectedness actually makes it possible to solve the problems of knowledge (such as Hume's critique of causality) that the pan-cognitivist has never been able to successfully address.
I often feel as though there aren't enough hours in the day for me to cram in as much information and reading as I want to. It's frustrating to realize that I will go to my grave ignorant. I really despair sometimes. Because what you write about Whitehead makes me wild to know more, and I always seem to be ten unread books deep, ten articles behind, and ten paces too late to make it to the goal line.
Now and again, while writing my own stuff, I'll try to invent a word to fill a need in a line: -
-"bewilderness" - a mental state of being lost in bewilderment
- "masturbatory" - the place where one pleasures oneself
- "to trumple" - to traduce for devious purpose
- "bombeast" - a terrifying braggart.
- "to drake" - to preen and strut (male)
"The great bombeast draked across the stage and began his rant by trumpling the other candidates."
None of these has or will make it to the OED, Mirriam Webster or any other dictionary, but that is not the point of inventing a neologism. If you need an invented word because you can't find one that fits your purpose because the meaning of an existing word doesn't quite hit the mark, or it doesn't scan, or because you want to be playful, go ahead, dream one up. I try to root my neologisms in existing language or common experience and/or knowledge, so that they feel as though they are not oddities.
Every word we speak was an invention and has become a linguistic artefact, which is why a mere glance at the word etymologies found in the OED, for instance, is so much fun and is so profound.
Bravo! Shakespeare was a terrific neologist, and your term, "to drake", is perfect. With me, all nouns are transitive (e.g., when he opened the window, all papers on the desk tornado'd to the corners of the room.) A bit self-conscious, and I wouldn't use it in a book, but like you, I find that playing with our excellent language a satisfying way of passing the time.
"Out of my way, tool of the state!" THAT I'm going to have to find a way to use! :-)
As for the words, my writing isn't nearly as poetic as yours. It's much more conversational in tone and probably a bit more proletarian. Nothing wrong with that, of course; it's just the way I roll. I can't imagine a circumstance in which I'd use any of these five words. I try to keep my big words to a minimum. I'm usually trying to educate my reader, not send them running for a dictionary.
Of course, if I wanted to do a serviceable impression of George Will, this would be an excellent place to start.
I am volunteering teaching a bunch of Italian teachers of English here in Pugla. I tell them
2 things define American English. Precision and speed. And of the 2 of these, speed is most important. It's why the use of polysyllabic words has decreased.
For a word-o-phile may I recommend Mark Helprin's A Winters Tale. A gorgeous cascade of written images. BTW the 2014 movie? Sucked. No other words needed.
Seplucher. Learned the word in the 5th grade reading Edger Allan Poe's "Annabelle Lee"
Also, can we PUHLEEZE get rid of starting a sentence with "So....." AGGGGHHHHH!!!!
LOL! We all have our linguistic pet peeves, don't we? I totally feel you. And all the steampunk/Goth words come from Poe, don't think? Sepulcher is a great one.
In Italy it's aspetta. Drives me nuts.
The example of "vermicular" is one I would definitely use, if I were still teaching logic.
Here are a couple of words for you, but first a backstory. I have noted -- possibly here, certainly elsewhere -- that I am a "Whitehead scholar", which is to say, I'm actually recognized as one of the top (Alfred North) Whitehead scholars in the world. It is a very small hill, but I am standing very close to the top of it. People who do not read Whitehead very closely often have accused him of inventing words. This is a scandal and canard; he recovered respectable English words that had fallen out of usage, but he never created neologisms. Here are two of his favorites:
"Ingression": in his usage, the way in which data enters into an active process to create the entity in its becoming.
"Prehension": the active taking in of data whereby a process in its becoming "feels" (as opposed to "knows" -- he rejected the pan-cognitivism that has so dogged Western philosophy) the data that is shaping its becoming.
I could (and, elsewhere, have) say a great deal more. But I won't.
This word "prehension" has me very curious. And I love your love of Whitehead. It is a pure and beautiful love.
Can you speak a little more to the idea of pan-cognitivism? Would you say that it lacks critical thought and/or discrimination?
"Pan-cognitivism," I realize, is far from self-explanatory -- I'm not even sure but that I invented the term.
It has been a fundamental thesis of Western philosophy since Descartes (possibly earlier, but I'm not convinced it was present in the Greeks), that the primary -- if not exclusive -- form of mental activity is some form of "knowing." So, it is all cognitive, all the way down. This assumption has crippled Western thought since the beginning of the modern period. It is not present in Eastern or Indigenous philosophies. In the contemporary period, some Western thinkers have come to reject it. Many of these are in the American school -- Peirce, James, Dewey, and as mentioned, Whitehead. Most Feminist philosophers, and quite a few Continentals as well, also reject the "everything is knowing" approach of pan-cognitivism.
(Whitehead was English by birth and through most of his career. But even today, the English want nothing to do with his philosophy and his metaphysical work all came out after he moved to Harvard, a move forced on him by Britain's mandatory retirement rules of the time. So he is considered part of the American canon. Their loss.)
Whitehead deliberately uses the term "feeling" to describe the primary mode of relatedness. Thus an actuality (an "actual occasion" in Whitehead-speak) "feels" the ingression of data from the world, and the how of this feeling is its prehensions.
For the pan-cognivist, I see an image and that seeing is a form of knowing, and the problem then becomes characterizing this knowledge as rational and true. For Whitehead we "feel" the world in the form of this seeing, which puts us a few steps further away from knowledge, but actually in much more intimate and immediate connection to the world. This connectedness actually makes it possible to solve the problems of knowledge (such as Hume's critique of causality) that the pan-cognitivist has never been able to successfully address.
I often feel as though there aren't enough hours in the day for me to cram in as much information and reading as I want to. It's frustrating to realize that I will go to my grave ignorant. I really despair sometimes. Because what you write about Whitehead makes me wild to know more, and I always seem to be ten unread books deep, ten articles behind, and ten paces too late to make it to the goal line.
Now and again, while writing my own stuff, I'll try to invent a word to fill a need in a line: -
-"bewilderness" - a mental state of being lost in bewilderment
- "masturbatory" - the place where one pleasures oneself
- "to trumple" - to traduce for devious purpose
- "bombeast" - a terrifying braggart.
- "to drake" - to preen and strut (male)
"The great bombeast draked across the stage and began his rant by trumpling the other candidates."
None of these has or will make it to the OED, Mirriam Webster or any other dictionary, but that is not the point of inventing a neologism. If you need an invented word because you can't find one that fits your purpose because the meaning of an existing word doesn't quite hit the mark, or it doesn't scan, or because you want to be playful, go ahead, dream one up. I try to root my neologisms in existing language or common experience and/or knowledge, so that they feel as though they are not oddities.
Every word we speak was an invention and has become a linguistic artefact, which is why a mere glance at the word etymologies found in the OED, for instance, is so much fun and is so profound.
Bravo! Shakespeare was a terrific neologist, and your term, "to drake", is perfect. With me, all nouns are transitive (e.g., when he opened the window, all papers on the desk tornado'd to the corners of the room.) A bit self-conscious, and I wouldn't use it in a book, but like you, I find that playing with our excellent language a satisfying way of passing the time.
My last "invention" repugnican. And as far as I can tell I really did create it. Waiting on the OED to call.
Justification, man with a good car don't need no justification ...
LOL! I like how in that context, you've given it a slangy urban feel ;-)
"Out of my way, tool of the state!" THAT I'm going to have to find a way to use! :-)
As for the words, my writing isn't nearly as poetic as yours. It's much more conversational in tone and probably a bit more proletarian. Nothing wrong with that, of course; it's just the way I roll. I can't imagine a circumstance in which I'd use any of these five words. I try to keep my big words to a minimum. I'm usually trying to educate my reader, not send them running for a dictionary.
Of course, if I wanted to do a serviceable impression of George Will, this would be an excellent place to start.
I am volunteering teaching a bunch of Italian teachers of English here in Pugla. I tell them
2 things define American English. Precision and speed. And of the 2 of these, speed is most important. It's why the use of polysyllabic words has decreased.
For a word-o-phile may I recommend Mark Helprin's A Winters Tale. A gorgeous cascade of written images. BTW the 2014 movie? Sucked. No other words needed.