I was accused yesterday of making up words, and this is absolutely true. I don't do it often, but I do it more often than if I had a fingerwaggy editor. Making up words is easy and usually involves combining other words or twisting them into a different part of speech. I like to think it helps to upbrighten my prose rather than making it coherentless.
So I've scanned back through my last sixmonthsworth of blogposts to see how many of the 200,000 words I wrote weren't real words. I cut and pasted the whole lot into a word processor and looked to see which got a little red squiggle underneath. I ignored names and places and discounted obviously-correct words the spellchecker didn't recognise.
In the process I discovered 13 archived spelling mistakes none of you noticed... or at least none of you responded with a comment saying "excellent post, by the way there is a typo". Almost all were from the period since Blogger updated and stopped underlining errors. That's my excuse, I'm not sure what yours is.
» appeciated, apruptly, beause, claustrophic, consideraly, decribed, microsopic, occured, particuarly, picknicking, sevice, succesfully, vistors
I looked up the rest in Chambers Dictionary (1983), a standard work, then typed the remainder into Google to see if they had wider prevalence.
Let's filter out those which are in fact words....
genuine words but unknown by spellchecker and dictionary
cheesemongery, coronaviral, creekside, kickabout, mindset, muppetry, parklet, reclad, seasidey, stompy, woodsmoke, zoomable
...and those which I insist on spelling economically...
normally two words
brandingwhores, flatsharers, lowpoint, numberplate, sliproad, skybridge, streetsign, swervemarks, yellowbrick
...and those which are just me being perverse...
unusual constructions noun as adjective: barriered, bollarded, hardhatted, hoardinged noun as verb: touristing, earworming adjective as plural noun: countables comparatives: orangier, touristiest negatives: dishonorary, unatmospheric, unbussed, unpavemented
just words jammed together
backstairwell, BestMate, burgermuncher, Hackneyfolk, ohthankgod, phoneswipers, shoutyperson, skyloft, whitevanmen
just an unusual suffix coined by me: bustlingwise, ticketofficeless I was not the first: blobless, contourwise, dildoesque, frontgardenful, heritageworthy, millenniumsworth, sightseeingworthy, tightwaddedness
...which leaves four potential lexicographical debuts...
seemingly new words
• bolx (noun): accusatory swear word aimed at marketing collateral
• jabbee (noun): one who has been vaccinated
• predictedly (adj): the past tense of predictably
• undistanceable (adj): of a location, unsuitable for social distancing
...but these still have some way to go before they reach the notoriety of my chief contribution to the English language...
