Newness
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Synonymia - noun - A relatively new form of poetry in which one word is used as a title, while the endings of all lines or stanzas are synonyms of the title. Rhyming is optional.
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You've probably never heard of the word Synonymia before and I doubt you've read any poems in that form. Why? I've just made the word up.
Actually, I made it up a few days ago while thinking about what I could write about in this blog, then had to decide what it meant.The question it raised in my thinking was, 'why are we so afraid of coining new words'?
Several times in our books we struggle for a word to explain how the character feels and end up with whole sentences which can sometimes be clumsy. A new word, created from the root of a current word, would be ideal in those circumstances. We could borrow from another language, or resurrect an old word that has fallen out of use.
At this point you may feel you're not worthy to create new words, that only the great writers like William Shakespeare, Geoffrey Chaucer, Charles Dickens or Martin Willoughby (I can dream) are allowed to do that.
Why? Three of those writers became literary greats after they'd invented new words. So why should we shy away from doing so?
If not create, how about reanimate old words from the Kentish language (jawsy - a chatterbox), Norse (eittsvat - a certain one, some, something), Old English (scurryfunge - hasty tidying of the house between the time you see a neighbour and the time she knocks on the door).
Nor should we forget non-english languages, many of which we have already mugged for words, such as Arabic (algebra), French (surrender), German (schadenfreude) and many others.
With all that in mind I'm going to lay down a challenge to you all: create, reanimate or import a new word every week in July and post it on the ACW Facebook page. It could even be an ACW competition.
Go on. I dare you to create a new word, to be a enliterator.
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**Enliterator - noun - A creator of new words. From the verb enliterate, the action of creating new words. First recorded use 30th June 2019 on the ACW blog by the little known writer/performer Martin Willoughby.
[From the Stevenage University Book of Rediscovered Words, October 2586 edition]
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Synonymia - noun - A relatively new form of poetry in which one word is used as a title, while the endings of all lines or stanzas are synonyms of the title. Rhyming is optional.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You've probably never heard of the word Synonymia before and I doubt you've read any poems in that form. Why? I've just made the word up.
Actually, I made it up a few days ago while thinking about what I could write about in this blog, then had to decide what it meant.The question it raised in my thinking was, 'why are we so afraid of coining new words'?
At this point you may feel you're not worthy to create new words, that only the great writers like William Shakespeare, Geoffrey Chaucer, Charles Dickens or Martin Willoughby (I can dream) are allowed to do that.
Why? Three of those writers became literary greats after they'd invented new words. So why should we shy away from doing so?
If not create, how about reanimate old words from the Kentish language (jawsy - a chatterbox), Norse (eittsvat - a certain one, some, something), Old English (scurryfunge - hasty tidying of the house between the time you see a neighbour and the time she knocks on the door).
Nor should we forget non-english languages, many of which we have already mugged for words, such as Arabic (algebra), French (surrender), German (schadenfreude) and many others.
With all that in mind I'm going to lay down a challenge to you all: create, reanimate or import a new word every week in July and post it on the ACW Facebook page. It could even be an ACW competition.
Go on. I dare you to create a new word, to be a enliterator.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
**Enliterator - noun - A creator of new words. From the verb enliterate, the action of creating new words. First recorded use 30th June 2019 on the ACW blog by the little known writer/performer Martin Willoughby.
[From the Stevenage University Book of Rediscovered Words, October 2586 edition]
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Your post makes me think of a plant name I saw in Batsford Arboretum: Cornus porlock. I thought it sounded like a Shakespearean insult. But inspired by your example I shall try to think of a new word. But remember that a lot of the words JK Rowling supposedly invented (taking her as a contemporary example) were recycled from already existing words in totally different contexts (eg Horcrux and hogwarts and dumbledore)...
ReplyDeleteI agree with you wholebodily.
ReplyDelete