Sniglet

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A sniglet is defined as "any word that doesn't appear in the dictionary, but should". The term was coined by writer/actor/comedian Rich Hall, who first created a series of Sniglets while he was a performer on the 1980s HBO comedy series Not Necessarily the News. Each episode of the monthly series featured a regular segment on Sniglets by Hall. Hall's own sniglets along with submissions by fans were compiled into several books, starting with Sniglets and More Sniglets.

While the concept of creating silly words to describe unlabeled things or concepts is not unique to Hall and goes back further, "Sniglets" specifically are the creation of Rich Hall.

Contents

[edit] Examples

  • ARG (Audio Retinal Gyration): The act of trying to read the label on a LP record while it's playing on a turntable. (Hall 1985a: 93)
  • Cheedle: The orange residue left on fingers after eating Cheetos or some other cheesy snack (Hall 1984: 21)
  • Execuglide: The act of using your wheeled office chair to move from one place to another. (Hall 1985a: 31)
  • Foodgitives: The food on one side of a tv dinner tray that escapes to the other side. (Hall 1985a: 31)
  • Funch: the act of turning one's pillow over continually in order to keep finding the cool side.
  • Grammical The study of the rules governing the use of a given natural language, and, as such, is a field of linguistics.
  • Furnidents: The indentations left in carpet after moving heavy furniture (Hall 1983)
  • Glackett: The ball inside a can of spray paint (or other aerosol can) for stirring the contents inside the can. (Hall 1984: 38) (This object is known as a "pea" in the paint industry)
  • Hozone: The place where one sock in every laundry load disappears to (Hall 1984: 43)
  • Pediddel: A car with only one working headlight (Hall 1984: 59)
  • Premblememblemation: Whenever you drop a letter in the mailbox, you always re-check to make sure it's gone down. (Hall 1984)
  • Pyramonster: That thing with one big eye on the back of a dollar bill. [The pyramid on the Great Seal (Hall 1986: 67)
  • Sniffleridge: The groove running between the nose and the mouth (Hall 1984: 92). (The real name for this structure is the philtrum.)
  • Somnambapologist: Person too polite to admit he was sleeping even when awakened at three in the morning. (Hall 1985:77)
  • Toastaphobia: The fear of sticking a fork in a toaster even when it's unplugged. (Hall 1985a: 83)
  • Essoasso: A person who cuts through a service station to avoid a red light (Hall 1986: 33)
  • Bananus: The dark, small bottom end of the banana that remains when peeled. (Hall 198?)[clarify]
  • Elbonics: The actions of two people maneuvering for one armrest in a movie theatre. (Hall 1984: 29)

[edit] Life after HBO

In 1984, a collection of sniglets was published, titled Sniglets (snig' lit: any word that doesn't appear in the dictionary, but should). It was followed by a "daily comic panel" in newspapers,[1] four more books, a game, and a calendar. The books have their entries arranged in alphabetical order like a dictionary, with information on how to pronounce the word, followed by a definition, and sometimes accompanied by an illustration. The original book had two appendices, "Anatomical Sniglets" and "Extra Added Bonus Section for Poets" (a sniglet that rhymed with orange). More Sniglets has an "Audio-Visual Sniglets" section; the rest had no such appendices. All five books had an "Official Sniglets Entry Blank," beginning, "Dear Rich: Here's my sniglet, which is every bit as clever as any in this dictionary." The first four books listed all the contributors after the dedication page.

The Game of Sniglets involved creating new sniglets, in addition to trying to guess the "true sniglet". In the "Playing Instructions," there are ideas on "How to Create a Sniglet" which include (1) combination (blend), (2) spelling change (altering a word related to the definition), (3) pure nonsense word, or (4) a "take-off on a well known product" (a spelling change to a trademark). However, any method was acceptable.

[edit] Sniglets and society

In a 1990 interview, Hall was asked if the "Sniglets books [were] completely for comic value?" He answered,

“ Yeah. Well, no. I wouldn't say they're completely for comic value. I mean, I get letters from schools all the time saying how they've incorporated a sniglet book into their reading program. You can look at a lot of the words and sort of break them down into their etymological origins. And you can learn a lot about how and where words derive from. When you assign this frailty of human nature a word, then the word has to work. It has to either be a hybrid of several other words, or have a Latin origin, or something.[2] ”

Books such as A Handbook for Substitute Teachers (1989) by Anne Wescott Dodd and Reading and Language Arts Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites : 20 Literacy Strategies That Engage the Brain (2005) by Marcia L. Tate bear out his claim; they suggest creating sniglets as a classroom activity.

Popular English language experts such as Richard Lederer and Barbara Wallraff have noted sniglets in their books, The Miracle of Language[3] and Word Court: Wherein Verbal Virtue Is Rewarded, Crimes Against the Language Are Punished, and Poetic Justice Is Done[4] respectively.

They also are a popular subject of satire. Homer Simpson, a character on the animated series The Simpsons, suggests "Son of Sniglet" as a good book to name as a favorite and a life influence on a college application in the episode Homer Goes to College (he also suggests TV Guide and Katharine Hepburn's autobiography Me).[5]

More recently, the idea has been "borrowed" by Barbara Wallraff for her new book "Word Fugitives: In Pursuit of Wanted Words."

[edit] Origins

The Sniglets idea derives from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy author Douglas Adams. On a holiday with British comedy producer John Lloyd, he suggested they play a game a teacher had taught him at school in which players were challenged to make up plausible word definitions for place names taken from road maps. The definitions they came up with were later incorporated into a spin-off book from Lloyd's satirical TV show Not the Nine O'Clock News. When the format of the show was sold to America to become Not Necessarily the News the producers also took the made-up word definition concept, which became Sniglets. [6] Meanwhile in 1983 Adams and Lloyd released their own book of hilarious neologisms,The Meaning of Liff, all strictly culled from names 'lying around idle on road-signs'.

However Adams's teacher would appear to have got the idea from humour writer Paul Jennings, who was certainly first to make up words derived from place-names in an essay appearing in 'The Jenguin Pennings' in 1963.[7] He is also the coiner of the very useful word Resistentialism.

[edit] Books and more

Rich Hall released several volumes of collected sniglets, illustrated by Arnie Ten:

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Metcalf, Alan (2002). Predicting New Words: The Secrets of Their Success, page 23. ISBN 0-618-13006-3
  2. ^ Lerner, Reuven M. "An interview with Rich Hall" The Tech Volume 110, No. 37, September 25, 1990, page 10.
  3. ^ Lederer, Richard (1999). The Miracle of Language, page 58
  4. ^ Wallraff, Barbara (2001). Word Court: Wherein Verbal Virtue Is Rewarded, Crimes Against the Language Are Punished, and Poetic Justice Is Done, page 306
  5. ^ Groening, Matt (1997). The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family", page 122.
  6. ^ Pearlman, Gregg "Exclusive Interview With Douglas Adams"
  7. ^ http://msgboard.snopes.com/message/ultimatebb.php?/ubb/get_topic/f/95/t/000699/p/1.html Snopes.com "Don't you have a word for...?"

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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