Have I ever acknowledged this wonderful word that The Simpsons (or, at least, their writers) have added to the English language?
‘Cromulent’ is now found in the full Oxford English Dictionary, and in most other major dictionaries in the world.
It was coined in 1996 by David X. Cohen, one of the writers on The Simpsons.
He, and the rest of the team, had been given a challenge—come up with two made-up but plausible sounding words.
And they did (clever blokes these writers!)
The first was ‘embiggen’ meaning ‘to make bigger’, and the second was ‘cromulent’ meaning ‘acceptable, satisfactory.’
So, how did they work them into the script?
They had the schoolchildren of Springfield watching a film about the founding father of Springfield, Jebediah Springfield.
The film ends with Jebediah saying, ‘A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man.’
One teacher says to another that she’d never heard the word ‘embiggen’ before she moved to Springfield.
To which the other teacher replies, ‘It’s a perfectly cromulent word.’
Now inventing words like that must have just looked like fun at the time, and I have sat in writers’ meetings so I can imagine them sitting around the table chortling in delight at what they had coined.
It can’t possibly have entered their minds that their new coinages would end up in global dictionaries!
And, yes, ‘embiggen’ is in there too.
But the real joke is that ‘embiggen’ was not a new word—it is recorded in the Oxford from 1884 with the meaning of ‘to make bigger or greater.’
Which just proves how hard it is to invent totally new words!
Tonight I will join Peta Credlin in News24 for 'Words Matter.'
The latest issue of Australian Geographic is in newsagents now -- with a photo of a beautiful Australian parrot on the front cover. Inside, along with stunning pictures and great articles, are my two small columns on 'Placenames' and 'Ozwords.'
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BY THE WAY...
If you'd like to see my A-Z list of Aussie slang, you'll find it here in the Australian Geographic website -- A-Z list of Aussie slang. Here’s the link: The A-Z of Aussie slang - Australian Geographic
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