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A sniglet (/ˈsnɪɡlɪt/) is an often humorous word made up to describe something for which no dictionary word exists. Introduced in the 1980s TV comedy series Not Necessarily the News, sniglets were generated and published in significant numbers, along with submissions by fans, in several books by Rich Hall, beginning with his Sniglets, Sniglets for Kids, and More Sniglets in the mid-1980s.^[1]

Origin

Development by Rich Hall

The term sniglet was conceived by comedian Rich Hall during his tenure on the 1980s HBO comedy series Not Necessarily the News.^[2] Each monthly episode featured a regular segment on sniglets, which Hall described as "any word that doesn't appear in the dictionary, but should".^[3] In 1984, a collection of sniglets was published by Hall, titled Sniglets (snig' lit: any word that doesn't appear in the dictionary, but should).^[3] This was followed by a "daily comic panel" in newspapers, four more books, a game, and a calendar.^[4] Many sniglets are portmanteau words, a comedic style often traced to Lewis Carroll.^{[citation needed]}

The Hall 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 has two appendices, "Anatomical Sniglets" and "Extra Added Bonus Section for Poets", and More Sniglets includes an "Audio-Visual Sniglets" section. All five books included an "Official Sniglets Entry Blank", beginning, "Dear Rich: Here's my sniglet, which is every bit as clever as any in this dictionary."

The Game of Sniglets is a board game in which players tried to identify the "official" sniglet from among a list that also included sniglets that fellow participants had created to go along with a provided definition.^[5] Players earn points by either guessing which word is the "official" sniglet, or by having their word chosen as the best candidate; the points earned determine how many spaces players can advance on the game board. The game instructions offer suggestions for creating a new sniglet, such as combining or blending words; changing the spelling of a word related to the definition; or creating new, purely nonsensical words.^[5]

Precursors

In 1914, humorist Gelett Burgess published a dictionary of original neologisms, Burgess Unabridged: A New Dictionary of Words You Have Always Needed.^[2] Humor writer Paul Jennings had published made-up meanings of real place-names in a 1963 essay appearing in The Jenguin Pennings.^[6] Author Douglas Adams, while travelling with British comedy producer John Lloyd, suggested they play a game he had learned 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 1983 book, The Meaning of Liff.^[7]^[8]^[9] The similarities and relationship between the content of this book and the Hall concept of sniglets is noted, by Barbara Wallraff, in Word Court (2001).^[10] Douglas Adams believed that when the format of Lloyd's satirical TV show Not the Nine O'Clock News was sold to America—where it became Not Necessarily the News—the producers also took the made-up word definition concept, which became the sniglets popularized by Hall.^[11]

Beyond comedy

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.^[12]

Anne Wescott Dodd's A Handbook for Substitute Teachers (1989)^[13] and Marcia L. Tate's Reading and Language Arts Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites: 20 Literacy Strategies That Engage the Brain (2005)^[14] suggest creating sniglets as a classroom activity, and so bear out his claim.

Popular English language experts such as Richard Lederer and Barbara Wallraff have noted sniglets in their books, The Miracle of Language^[15] and Word Court: Wherein Verbal Virtue Is Rewarded, Crimes Against the Language Are Punished, and Poetic Justice Is Done,^[10] respectively. The idea has been borrowed by Barbara Wallraff for her book Word Fugitives: In Pursuit of Wanted Words, where "word fugitives" is her term for invented words.^[16] Wallraff's Atlantic Monthly column "Word Fugitives"^[17] features words invented by readers, although they had to be puns, which many sniglets are not.^{[citation needed]}

Examples

Aquadextrous: possessing the ability to turn the bathtub faucet with the toes.^[18]
Castcaspers: dead actors who appear on television.^[19]
Chwads: discarded gum found beneath tables and countertops.^[18]
Essoasso: One who swerves through a service station to avoid a red light.
Glutetic chair: the chair design found in movie theaters.^[18]
Icelanche: When ice at the bottom of an upturned glass suddenly moves toward the mouth as one attempts to finish drinking the liquid.^[19]
Jokesult: When someone insults you, you call them on it, and they say, "It was just a joke."
Larry: a frayed toothbrush.^[19]
Premblememblemation: The act of checking that a letter is in a mailbox after it has been dropped.^[18]
Snackmosphere: the pocket of air found inside snack and/or potato chip bags.^[18]
Terma helper: The extra verbiage used to stretch a 600-word essay to the required 1000.
Toboggan hagen: a large ice cream sundae.^[19]
Eyes-Hockey: The substance found in the corner of your eye in the morning.
Pursabyss: where unrecovered belongings reside within a woman's handbag.

In popular culture

Homer Simpson, a fictional character of the animated television series The Simpsons, suggests Son of Sniglet as a good book to name as a favorite and a life influence when he is completing his college application in the episode "Homer Goes to College".^[20]

The fictional character Dale Gribble in the animated television series King of the Hill explains his inappropriate laughter upon successfully sabotaging a new relationship of fellow character Bill Dauterive, saying "just remembered a funny sniglet!"^[21]

The satirical newspaper The Onion published an article in 2001 mocking sniglets as an obscure fad.^[22]

References

^ Petelin, Roslyn (17 January 2018). "Milkshake duck, sniglets and why there's nothing new about invented words". abc.net.au. Retrieved 16 July 2018..
^ ^a ^b Wallraff, Barbara (1 March 2006). "Shouldn't There Be a Word ... ?". The American Scholar. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
^ ^a ^b Hall, Rich (1984-01-01). Sniglets (snig'lit): any word that doesn't appear in the dictionary, but should. New York: Collier Books. ISBN 0020125402.
^ Metcalf, Alan (2002). Predicting New Words: The Secrets of Their Success. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 23. ISBN 0618130063.
^ ^a ^b "The Game of Sniglets Playing Instructions" (PDF). Blippee.com. Retrieved 2016-04-06.
^ Ware, Wye, Watford, read by the author.
^ Gartner, Michael (15 March 1987). Words, Newsday
^ Kalaga, Wojciech (1997). Nebulae of discourse: interpretation, textuality and the subject. Peter Lang Pub. ISBN 082043289X.
^ Parkvall, Mikael (2006). Limits of Language: Almost Everything You Didn't Know about Language and Languages. William James & Company. ISBN 1590281985.
^ ^a ^b Wallraff, Barbara (2001). Word Court: Wherein Verbal Virtue Is Rewarded, Crimes Against the Language Are Punished, and Poetic Justice Is Done. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 306. ISBN 0544109937. Retrieved 2 April 2016.
^ Adams, Douglas & Pearlman, Gregg (1987-03-27). "Exclusive Interview With Douglas Adams (Author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)". Archived from the original on 2013-09-23.
^ Lerner, Reuven M. (1990-09-25). "An interview with Rich Hall". The Tech. 110 (37). MIT: 10.
^ Dodd, Anne (1989). A Handbook for Substitute Teachers. Springfield, Ill.: C.C. Thomas. ISBN 0398055394.
^ Tate, Marcia (2005). Reading and Language Arts Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites: 20 Literacy Strategies That Engage the Brain. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press. ISBN 1412915104.
^ Lederer, Richard (1999). The Miracle of Language. New York: Pocket Books. p. 58. ISBN 0671028111.
^ Wallraff, Barbara (2006). Word Fugitives: In Pursuit of Wanted Words. New York: Harper. pp. 5. ISBN 0060832738.
^ "Word Fugitives". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2016-04-06.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Hall, Rich (1984). Sniglets. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. ISBN 0-02-012530-5.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Sniglets". www.astro.umd.edu. Archived from the original on 20 September 2016. Retrieved 2016-08-12.
^ Groening, Matt (1997). The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family. p. 122. ISBN 978-1435245471.
^ "King of the Hill : Episode "Untitled Blake McCormack Project" (2008)". IMDb.com. Retrieved 2016-04-06.
^ "Man Won't Stop Coming Up With New Sniglets". The Onion. 37 (11). 2001-03-28. Retrieved 2018-09-09.

External links

"snopes.com: Don't you have a word for...?". snopes.com. Retrieved 3 April 2016.
Arnie Ten official website

[1] Petelin, Roslyn (17 January 2018). "Milkshake duck, sniglets and why there's nothing new about invented words". abc.net.au. Retrieved 16 July 2018..

[Wallraff2006-2] Wallraff, Barbara (1 March 2006). "Shouldn't There Be a Word ... ?". The American Scholar. Retrieved 28 May 2018.

[Hall-3] Hall, Rich (1984-01-01). Sniglets (snig'lit): any word that doesn't appear in the dictionary, but should. New York: Collier Books. ISBN 0020125402.

[4] Metcalf, Alan (2002). Predicting New Words: The Secrets of Their Success. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 23. ISBN 0618130063.

[GameInstructions-5] "The Game of Sniglets Playing Instructions" (PDF). Blippee.com. Retrieved 2016-04-06.

[6] Ware, Wye, Watford, read by the author.

[art1-7] Gartner, Michael (15 March 1987). Words, Newsday

[kalaga-8] Kalaga, Wojciech (1997). Nebulae of discourse: interpretation, textuality and the subject. Peter Lang Pub. ISBN 082043289X.

[parkvall-9] Parkvall, Mikael (2006). Limits of Language: Almost Everything You Didn't Know about Language and Languages. William James & Company. ISBN 1590281985.

[wallraff-10] Wallraff, Barbara (2001). Word Court: Wherein Verbal Virtue Is Rewarded, Crimes Against the Language Are Punished, and Poetic Justice Is Done. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 306. ISBN 0544109937. Retrieved 2 April 2016.

[adams-11] Adams, Douglas & Pearlman, Gregg (1987-03-27). "Exclusive Interview With Douglas Adams (Author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)". Archived from the original on 2013-09-23.

[interview-12] Lerner, Reuven M. (1990-09-25). "An interview with Rich Hall". The Tech. 110 (37). MIT: 10.

[13] Dodd, Anne (1989). A Handbook for Substitute Teachers. Springfield, Ill.: C.C. Thomas. ISBN 0398055394.

[14] Tate, Marcia (2005). Reading and Language Arts Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites: 20 Literacy Strategies That Engage the Brain. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press. ISBN 1412915104.

[lederer-15] Lederer, Richard (1999). The Miracle of Language. New York: Pocket Books. p. 58. ISBN 0671028111.

[16] Wallraff, Barbara (2006). Word Fugitives: In Pursuit of Wanted Words. New York: Harper. pp. 5. ISBN 0060832738.

[17] "Word Fugitives". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2016-04-06.

[:0-18] Hall, Rich (1984). Sniglets. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. ISBN 0-02-012530-5.

[:1-19] "Sniglets". www.astro.umd.edu. Archived from the original on 20 September 2016. Retrieved 2016-08-12.

[simpsons-20] Groening, Matt (1997). The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family. p. 122. ISBN 978-1435245471.

[21] "King of the Hill : Episode "Untitled Blake McCormack Project" (2008)". IMDb.com. Retrieved 2016-04-06.

[theonion-22] "Man Won't Stop Coming Up With New Sniglets". The Onion. 37 (11). 2001-03-28. Retrieved 2018-09-09.

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+{{Short description|Term for a made-up word}}
-'''Sniglet''' is a [[neologism]], popularized by comedian/actor [[Rich Hall]] during his tenure on the 1980s [[Home Box Office|HBO]] comedy series ''[[Not Necessarily the News]]''.  Each episode of the monthly series featured a regular segment on sniglets, which Hall described as  "any word that doesn't appear in the dictionary, but should".  Hall's own sniglets, along with submissions by fans, were compiled into several books, starting with ''Sniglets'' and ''More Sniglets''.
+A '''sniglet''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|n|ɪ|g|l|ɪ|t}}) is an often humorous word made up to describe something for which no dictionary word exists. Introduced in the 1980s TV comedy series ''[[Not Necessarily the News]]'', sniglets were generated and published in significant numbers, along with submissions by fans, in several books by [[Rich Hall]], beginning with his ''Sniglets'', ''Sniglets for Kids'', and ''More Sniglets'' in the mid-1980s.<ref>{{cite news| url= http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-17/milkshake-duck-theres-nothing-new-about-invented-words/9336600| title= Milkshake duck, sniglets and why there's nothing new about invented words| first= Roslyn |last= Petelin| date= 17 January 2018| website= abc.net.au| access-date= 16 July 2018}}.</ref>
-==Origins==
+==Origin==
+===Development by Rich Hall===
-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,<ref>Metcalf, Alan (2002). ''Predicting New Words: The Secrets of Their Success'', page 23. ISBN 0-618-13006-3</ref> 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 (word)#Rhyme|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 term ''sniglet'' was conceived by comedian [[Rich Hall]] during his tenure on the 1980s [[HBO]] comedy series ''[[Not Necessarily the News]]''.<ref name=Wallraff2006>{{cite web|last=Wallraff|first=Barbara|title=Shouldn't There Be a Word ... ?|date=1 March 2006|work=The American Scholar|url=https://theamericanscholar.org/shouldnt-there-be-a-word/|access-date=28 May 2018}}</ref> Each monthly episode featured a regular segment on sniglets, which Hall described as "any word that doesn't appear in the dictionary, but should".<ref name= "Hall"/> In 1984, a collection of sniglets was published by Hall, titled ''Sniglets (snig' lit: any word that doesn't appear in the dictionary, but should)''.<ref name="Hall">{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/snigletssniglita00hall|title=Sniglets (snig'lit): any word that doesn't appear in the dictionary, but should|last=Hall|first=Rich|date=1984-01-01|publisher=Collier Books|isbn=0020125402|location=New York}}</ref> This was followed by a "daily comic panel" in newspapers, four more books, a game, and a calendar.<ref>{{cite book | last = Metcalf | first = Alan | year = 2002 | title = Predicting New Words: The Secrets of Their Success | page = [https://archive.org/details/predictingnewwor00alla/page/23 23] | isbn = 0618130063 | publisher = [[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt]] | url = https://archive.org/details/predictingnewwor00alla/page/23 }}</ref> Many sniglets are [[portmanteau]] words, a comedic style often traced to [[Lewis Carroll]].{{citation needed|date=April 2016}}
+The Hall 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 has two appendices, "Anatomical Sniglets" and "Extra Added Bonus Section for Poets", and ''More Sniglets'' includes an "Audio-Visual Sniglets" section. All five books included an "Official Sniglets Entry Blank", beginning, "Dear Rich: Here's my sniglet, which is every bit as clever as any in this dictionary."
-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.
+The ''Game of Sniglets'' is a board game in which players tried to identify the "official" sniglet from among a list that also included sniglets that fellow participants had created to go along with a provided definition.<ref name=GameInstructions>{{Cite web| url= http://www.blippee.com/game-instructions/instructions-games-gang-sniglets.pdf|title=The Game of Sniglets Playing Instructions|website= Blippee.com|access-date=2016-04-06}}</ref> Players earn points by either guessing which word is the "official" sniglet, or by having their word chosen as the best candidate; the points earned determine how many spaces players can advance on the game board. The game instructions offer suggestions for creating a new sniglet, such as combining or [[Blend word|blend]]ing words; changing the spelling of a word related to the definition; or creating new, purely [[nonsense word|nonsensical words]].<ref name= GameInstructions />
-==Sniglets and society==
-In a 1990 interview, Hall was asked if the "Sniglets books [were] completely for comic value?"  He answered,
+===Precursors===
-{{cquote|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.<ref name=interview>[http://tech.mit.edu/V110/N37/hall.37a.html Lerner, Reuven M. "An interview with Rich Hall" ''The Tech'' Volume 110, No. 37, September 25, 1990, page 10.]</ref>}}
+In 1914, humorist [[Gelett Burgess]] published a dictionary of original [[neologism]]s, ''Burgess Unabridged: A New Dictionary of Words You Have Always Needed''.<ref name=Wallraff2006/> Humor writer [[Paul Jennings (UK author)|Paul Jennings]] had published made-up meanings of real place-names in a 1963 essay appearing in ''The Jenguin Pennings''.<ref>[https://audioboom.com/posts/2655528-ware-wye-watford ''Ware, Wye, Watford'', read by the author.]</ref> Author [[Douglas Adams]], while travelling with British comedy producer [[John Lloyd (producer)|John Lloyd]], suggested they play a game he had learned 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 1983 book, ''[[The Meaning of Liff]]''.<ref name="art1">Gartner, Michael (15 March 1987). [https://archive.today/20130131212915/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/newsday/access/104356826.html?dids=104356826:104356826&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Mar+15,+1987&author=By+Michael+Gartner&pub=Newsday+(Combined+editions)&desc=WORDS&pqatl=google Words], ''[[Newsday]]''</ref><ref name="kalaga">{{cite book|title=Nebulae of discourse: interpretation, textuality and the subject|first=Wojciech|last=Kalaga|year=1997|publisher=Peter Lang Pub.|isbn=082043289X}}</ref><ref name="parkvall">{{cite book|title=Limits of Language: Almost Everything You Didn't Know about Language and Languages|first=Mikael|last=Parkvall|year=2006|publisher=William James & Company|isbn=1590281985}}</ref> The similarities and relationship between the content of this book and the Hall concept of sniglets is noted, by Barbara Wallraff, in ''Word Court'' (2001).<ref name=wallraff>{{cite book | author = Wallraff, Barbara | year = 2001 | title =  Word Court: Wherein Verbal Virtue Is Rewarded, Crimes Against the Language Are Punished, and Poetic Justice Is Done | page = 306 | isbn = 0544109937 | location = New York | publisher = Houghton Mifflin Harcourt  | url = https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0544109937 | access-date = 2 April 2016 }}</ref> Douglas Adams believed that when the format of Lloyd's satirical TV show ''[[Not the Nine O'Clock News]]'' was sold to America—where it became ''[[Not Necessarily the News]]''—the producers also took the made-up word definition concept, which became the sniglets popularized by Hall.<ref name=adams>{{cite web | author1 = Adams, Douglas | author2 = Pearlman, Gregg | name-list-style = amp | date = 1987-03-27 | title = Exclusive Interview With Douglas Adams (Author of ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'') | url = http://www.liquivista.com/eeeeeegp/NotGiants/Projects/Adams.html | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130923091354/http://www.liquivista.com/eeeeeegp/NotGiants/Projects/Adams.html | archive-date = 2013-09-23 }}</ref>
+==Beyond comedy==
-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.
+In a 1990 interview, Hall was asked if the "Sniglets books [were] completely for comic value?"  He answered,{{quote|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.<ref name=interview>{{cite journal | author = Lerner, Reuven M. | date = 1990-09-25 | title = An interview with Rich Hall | journal = The Tech |publisher=[[MIT]] | volume = 110 | issue = 37 | page = 10 | url = http://tech.mit.edu/V110/N37/hall.37a.html }}</ref>}} Anne Wescott Dodd's ''A Handbook for Substitute Teachers'' (1989)<ref>{{Cite book|title=A Handbook for Substitute Teachers |last= Dodd| first= Anne| publisher= C.C. Thomas|year=1989|isbn=0398055394|location=Springfield, Ill.}}</ref> and Marcia L. Tate's ''Reading and Language Arts Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites: 20 Literacy Strategies That Engage the Brain'' (2005)<ref>{{cite book|title= Reading and Language Arts Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites: 20 Literacy Strategies That Engage the Brain |first= Marcia |publisher= Corwin Press|year=2005|isbn=1412915104|location=Thousand Oaks, California|author=Tate}}</ref> suggest creating sniglets as a classroom activity, and so bear out his claim.
-Popular English language experts such as [[Richard Lederer]] and [[Barbara Wallraff]] have noted sniglets in their books, ''The Miracle of Language''<ref name=lederer>Lederer, Richard (1999). ''The Miracle of Language'', page 58</ref> and ''Word Court: Wherein Verbal Virtue Is Rewarded, Crimes Against the Language Are Punished, and Poetic Justice Is Done''<ref name=wallraff>Wallraff, Barbara (2001). ''Word Court: Wherein Verbal Virtue Is Rewarded, Crimes Against the Language Are Punished, and Poetic Justice Is Done'', page 306</ref> respectively.  More recently, the idea has been "borrowed" by Barbara Wallraff for her new book ''Word Fugitives: In Pursuit of Wanted Words,'' where "word fugitives" is her term for invented words. Wallraff's ''[[Atlantic Monthly]]'' column "Word Fugitives" features words invented by readers, although they must be [[pun]]s, which many sniglets are not.
+Popular English language experts such as [[Richard Lederer]] and [[Barbara Wallraff]] have noted sniglets in their books, ''The Miracle of Language''<ref name="lederer">{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780671028114/page/58|title=The Miracle of Language|first=Richard|publisher=Pocket Books|year=1999|isbn=0671028111|location=New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780671028114/page/58 58]|author=Lederer}}</ref> and ''Word Court: Wherein Verbal Virtue Is Rewarded, Crimes Against the Language Are Punished, and Poetic Justice Is Done'',<ref name=wallraff/> respectively. The idea has been borrowed by Barbara Wallraff for her book ''Word Fugitives: In Pursuit of Wanted Words'', where "word fugitives" is her term for invented words.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Word Fugitives: In Pursuit of Wanted Words |last=Wallraff |first=Barbara |publisher=Harper |year=2006 |isbn=0060832738 |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/wordfugitives0000wall/page/5 5] |url=https://archive.org/details/wordfugitives0000wall/page/5 }}</ref> Wallraff's ''[[Atlantic Monthly]]'' column "Word Fugitives"<ref>{{Cite web| url= https://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/fugitives/index.htm |title= Word Fugitives | website= The Atlantic |access-date=2016-04-06}}</ref> features words invented by readers, although they had to be [[pun]]s, which many sniglets are not.{{citation needed|date=April 2016}}
+==Examples==
-Sniglets 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]]".<ref name=simpsons>[[Matt Groening|Groening, Matt]] (1997). ''The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family", page 122.</ref>  Additionally, [[Dale Gribble]] on ''[[King of the Hill]]'' explains away his inappropriate laughter at his successfully sabotaging [[Bill Dauterive]]'s new relationship by saying "just remembered a funny sniglet!" in the episode "Untitled Blake McCormack Project" (2008). ''[[The Onion]]'' published an article in 2001 mocking Sniglets as an obscure fad. <ref name=theonion>[http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/man_wont_stop_coming_up "Man Won't Stop Coming Up With New Sniglets" ''The Onion'' Issue 37•11, March 28, 2001]</ref>
+* Aquadextrous: possessing the ability to turn the bathtub faucet with the toes.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Sniglets|last=Hall|first=Rich|publisher=Macmillan Publishing Company|year=1984|isbn=0-02-012530-5|location=New York|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/snigletssniglita00hall}}</ref>
+* Castcaspers: dead actors who appear on television.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.astro.umd.edu/~avondale/extra/Humor/MiscellaneousHumor/Sniglets.html|title=Sniglets|website=www.astro.umd.edu|access-date=2016-08-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160920222001/https://www.astro.umd.edu/~avondale/extra/Humor/MiscellaneousHumor/Sniglets.html|archive-date=20 September 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
+* Chwads: discarded gum found beneath tables and countertops.<ref name=":0" />
+* Essoasso: One who swerves through a service station to avoid a red light.
+* Glutetic chair: the chair design found in movie theaters.<ref name=":0" />
+* Icelanche: When ice at the bottom of an upturned glass suddenly moves toward the mouth as one attempts to finish drinking the liquid.<ref name=":1" />
+* Jokesult: When someone insults you, you call them on it, and they say, "It was just a joke."
+* Larry: a frayed toothbrush.<ref name=":1" />
+* Premblememblemation: The act of checking that a letter is in a mailbox after it has been dropped.<ref name=":0" />
+* Snackmosphere: the pocket of air found inside snack and/or potato chip bags.<ref name=":0" />
+* Terma helper: The extra verbiage used to stretch a 600-word essay to the required 1000.
+* Toboggan hagen: a large ice cream sundae.<ref name=":1" />
+*Eyes-Hockey: The substance found in the corner of your eye in the morning.
+*Pursabyss: where unrecovered belongings reside within a woman's handbag.
+==In popular culture==
-==Origins==
+[[Homer Simpson]], a [[fiction]]al character of the animated television series ''[[The Simpsons]]'', suggests ''Son of Sniglet'' as a good book to name as a favorite and a life influence when he is completing his college application in the episode "[[Homer Goes to College]]".<ref name=simpsons>{{cite book | author= Groening, Matt | year = 1997 | title= The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family | page = 122 | isbn =978-1435245471  }}</ref>
-Many sniglets are [[portmanteau]] words, a comedic style often traced to [[Lewis Carroll]].
+The fictional character [[Dale Gribble]] in the animated television series ''[[King of the Hill]]'' explains his inappropriate laughter upon successfully sabotaging a new relationship of fellow character [[Bill Dauterive]], saying "just remembered a funny sniglet!"<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1188294/|title=King of the Hill : Episode "Untitled Blake McCormack Project" (2008)|website=IMDb.com|access-date=2016-04-06}}</ref>
-Humor writer [[Paul Jennings (UK author)|Paul Jennings]] had published made-up meanings of real place-names in a 1963 essay appearing
-in ''The Jenguin Pennings''.<ref name=jennings>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...?"</ref> Author [[Douglas Adams]], while travelling with British comedy producer [[John Lloyd (writer)|John Lloyd]], suggested they play a game he had learned 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 1983 book, ''[[The Meaning of Liff]]''.  When the format of Lloyd's satirical TV show ''[[Not the Nine O'Clock News]]'' was sold to America to become ''Not Necessarily the News'', the producers also took the made-up word definition concept, which became Sniglets.<ref name=adams>[http://eeeeeegp.com/NotGiants/Projects/Adams.html Pearlman, Gregg "Exclusive Interview With Douglas Adams"]</ref>
+The satirical newspaper ''[[The Onion]]'' published an article in 2001 mocking sniglets as an obscure fad.<ref name=theonion>{{cite journal | date = 2001-03-28 | title = Man Won't Stop Coming Up With New Sniglets|journal=The Onion | volume = 37 | issue = 11 | url = https://local.theonion.com/man-wont-stop-coming-up-with-new-sniglets-1819565982 | access-date =2018-09-09  }}</ref>
-==Books and more==
-Rich Hall released several volumes of collected sniglets, illustrated by Arnie Ten:
-* ''Sniglets (snig' lit: any word that doesn't appear in the dictionary, but should)'' (1984) ISBN 0-02-012530-5
-* ''More Sniglets'' (1985a) ISBN 0-02-012560-7
-* ''Unexplained Sniglets of the Universe'' (1986) ISBN 0-02-040400-X
-* ''Angry Young Sniglets'' (1987) ISBN 0-02-012600-X
-* ''When Sniglets Ruled the Earth'' (1989) ISBN 0-02-040441-7
-* ''Sniglets for Kids'' (Sniglets Collector Sticker Books) (1985b) ISBN 0-89954-397-9
-* ''Game of Sniglets'' (1990) {{OCLC|25494206}}
-* ''Sniglet a Day - 1994 Calendar'' (1993) ISBN 0-8362-7379-6
-== Sniglets examples ==
-{{unreferenced-section|date=August 2010}}
-* '''Toastaphobia''': The fear of sticking a fork in a toaster even when it's unplugged.
-* '''Adam 69''': Two police cars, parked next to each other, facing opposite directions, in such a way that the drivers' side doors are only inches from each other, allowing the officers to chat with each other while waiting for a traffic violation to happen.
-* '''Anniversorry''': The act of buying presents, especially diamonds, to make up for a forgotten aniversary.
-* '''Sark''': The marks left on one's ankle after wearing tube socks all day.
-* '''Pre-autoistic McConsumption''': The tendency to start eating your french fries in the car on your way home.
-* '''Idiot Box''': The part of the envelope that tells a person where to place the stamp when they can't quite figure it out for themselves.
-* '''Ancinemation''': The curious act of waiting in line to see a movie and watching exiting movie goers' reactions to see if they liked the movie or not.
-* '''Downpause''': The split second interruption of rain as you drive your car under a bridge.<ref>Hall, Rich & Friends. ''More Sniglets'' (1985a) ISBN 0-02-012560-7</ref>
-* '''Lactomangulation''': Manhandling the "open here" spout on a milk carton so badly that one has to resort to using the "illegal" side.
-* '''Televator''': The rolling line on a TV when the Horizontal hold isn't adjusted.
-* '''Alcolean''': The point just before a drunk person starts to stumble.
-* '''Cinemuck''': The sticky substance on the floor of a movie theater.
-* '''Nerkle''': Someone who leaves their Christmas lights/decorations up all year.
-* '''Doork''': A person who tries to enter through a door clearly marked 'Exit'.<ref>Hall, Rich & Friends. ''More Sniglets'' (1985a) ISBN 0-02-012560-7</ref>
-* '''Magnacarta''': The lonely car in lot that always attracts shopping carts
-* '''Idiolocation''': The spot on the map marked "You are here."<ref>Hall, Rich & Friends. ''Unexplained Sniglets of the Universe'' (1986) ISBN 0-02-040400-X</ref>
-* '''Expresshole''': The ***hole in the express lane at the store who has way more items in his cart than the limit for the lane.
-* '''Icealanche''': The avalanche of ice that occurs when a glass or cup is tipped up to drink the last of the liquid.
-* '''Adadictomy''': The medical term for when a woman has a sex change operation.
-* '''Vagitarian''': An alternate word for "lesbian".
 ==See also==
+{{div col|colwidth=22em}}
 * [[Daffynition]]
-* [[The Meaning of Liff]]
+* [[Dord]]
-* [[Neologism]]
+* [[Eggcorn]]
-* [[Wiktionary:Wiktionary:List of protologisms|Wiktionary's list of protologisms]]
 * [[Jabberwocky]]
+* [[Mondegreen]]
+* [[Phono-semantic matching]]
+{{div col end}}
-==Notes==
+==References==
-{{reflist}}
+{{Reflist}}
+==Further reading==
+=== Primary sources ===
+Rich Hall released several volumes of collected sniglets, illustrated by Arnie Ten:
+* {{cite book | url = https://archive.org/details/snigletssniglita00hall | title = Sniglets (snig'lit): Any Word That Doesn't Appear in the Dictionary, but Should | first = Rich | publisher = Macmillan | others = Illustrated by Arnie Ten | year = 1984 | isbn = 0020125305 | location = New York, NY | author = Hall | url-access = registration }}
+* {{cite book | title = Sniglets for Kids | year = 1985 | isbn = 0899543979 }}{{full citation needed|date=April 2016}}
+* {{cite book | url = https://archive.org/details/moresnigletssnig00hall | title = More Sniglets (snig'lit): Any Word That Doesn't Appear in the Dictionary, but Should | first = Rich | publisher = Macmillan | others = Illustrated by Arnie Ten | year = 1985 | isbn = 0020125607 | location = New York, NY | author = Hall }}
+* {{cite book | url =https://archive.org/details/unexplainedsnigl00hall| url-access =registration| title = Unexplained Sniglets of the Universe (snig'lit): Any Word That Doesn't Appear in the Dictionary, but Should |first=Rich| publisher = Macmillan |others=Illustrated by Arnie Ten| year = 1986 | isbn = 002040400X | location = New York, NY | author =Hall  }}
+* {{cite book | url = https://archive.org/details/angryyoungsnigle00hall | title = Angry Young Sniglets (snig'lit): Any Word That Doesn't Appear in the Dictionary, but Should | first = Rich | publisher = Macmillan | others = Illustrated by Arnie Ten | year = 1987 | isbn = 002012600X | location = New York, NY | author = Hall }}
+* {{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780020404415|title=When Sniglets Ruled the Earth (snig'lit): Any Word That Doesn't Appear in the Dictionary, but Should|first=Rich|publisher=Macmillan|others=Illustrated by Arnie Ten|year=1989|isbn=0020404417|editor-last=Slichter|editor-first=Ann|location=New York, NY|editor-last2=Tourk Lee|editor-first2=Pat|author=Hall}}
+* ''Game of Sniglets'' (1990), {{OCLC|25494206}}.{{full citation needed|date=April 2016}}
+* ''Sniglet a Day – 1994 Calendar'' (1993), {{ISBN|0836273796}}.{{full citation needed|date=April 2016}}
 ==External links==
+{{Wiktionary|sniglet}}
-* [http://bertc.com/sniglets.htm Additional Sniglet Examples]
+* {{cite web|url=http://msgboard.snopes.com/message/ultimatebb.php?/ubb/get_topic/f/95/t/000699/p/1.html|title=snopes.com: Don't you have a word for...?|work=snopes.com|access-date=3 April 2016}}
 * [http://www.arnieten.com/ Arnie Ten official website]
-* [http://www.pseudodictionary.com/ The Pseudodictionary], "The dictionary for words that wouldn't make it into dictionaries."  A collection of user-submitted neologisms.
-* [http://www.unwords.com/ Unwords.com] A collection of made-up words and definitions created by everyday people, out of necessity or for humor.
-[[Category:1980s]]
+[[Category:1980s neologisms]]
-[[Category:Neologisms]]
 [[Category:Nonce words]]
+[[Category:Protologisms]]
+[[Category:1980s in comedy]]