Editing Sniglet

{{Short description|Term for a made-up word}}
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>

==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]]''.<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'' 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 />

===Precursors===
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==
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">{{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==
* 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==
[[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>

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>

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>

==See also==
{{div col|colwidth=22em}}
* [[Daffynition]]
* [[Dord]]
* [[Eggcorn]]
* [[Jabberwocky]]
* [[Mondegreen]]
* [[Phono-semantic matching]]
{{div col end}}

==References==
{{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}}
* {{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]

[[Category:1980s neologisms]]
[[Category:Nonce words]]
[[Category:Protologisms]]
[[Category:1980s in comedy]]