Texture-Word Coinages
Language is dynamic and mobile. If Dickens makes up a word and it sticks because it describes a useful texture, then it becomes part of the language. Texture-words, I think, tend to be more easily coin-able than other kinds of words, because of the fuzzy interchangeability of their sound and appearance that I hope my 'INTEXTs' demonstrate. We see "toddle" in an Eliot novel - is it a word? "Gabble"? Did these ever become institutionally-accepted words, and when did they if they did?
Perhaps the most successful and mucky example of texture-word coinage is Lewis Carroll's poem "Jabberwocky," which everyone knows, but which I'll insert here just for refreshment:
"Jabberwocky" (by Lewis Carroll)
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
Beware the Jabberwock, y son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!
He took his vorpal sword in hand;
Long time the manxome foe he sought-
So rested he be the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey ood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead,and with its head
He went galumphing back.
'And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!
He chortled in his joy.
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves
And the mome raths outgrabe.
In Through the Looking Glass, Humpty Dumpty gives explanations of the coinages here, including the by-now standard definition of the 'portmanteau' coinage: "two meanings packed up into one word." In fact, this definition doesn't do justice to the coinages in Carroll's own poem, which play on the instability inherent in texture-words (even 'real' ones). As I've suggested in my Introduction to this project, texture-words (the ones that obey rules I can identify) tend to have a certain fuzzy-doubling at their heart, which results in incomplete referentiality and fuzziness of meaning. Coinages like gimble, mimsy, and burble may be semantically based on "gimlet," "lithe and miserable," and bubble, but the sound of the coinages multiplies and troubles potential meanings as an effect of texture.
Although I've highlighted some of the texture-words here constructed out of the rules I've been following with regard to my 'INTEXT' tables, the fact is that this poem makes those rules seem quite minor. Words like galumphing and snicker-snack evoke textures through sound-plays I'm not quite sure how to categorize. Perhaps reference to orthodox linguistics could help in that regard.
It's very easy to come up with texture-word coinages by cut-n-pasting across sound-categories (gribble, ribber, mibble, etc.). Coinages that have appreciable semantic weight are a little more difficult. Here are some that the Victorians came up with and a bunch that have poppled out of my head. All suggestions (use form below) will be addendled to the databasery, and you will be creditickled for your efforts.