I thought I'd invented a word ... but I hadn't

[Shaun]

I'd had a word going round in my head for months.

The more I mulled it over, the more I thought - "This word can't exist, so I must have invented a word. Wow. That's cool. What could it be used for?"

So I thought about its application and decided it could be used to describe the undulating pattern on those hard plastic sheets that you put on top of garage roofs. Yes. That's what it would describe.

So, months down the line - convinced I'd invented a new word - I finally decide to type it in to the oracle we all call Google, and guess what?

I was soooo disappointed that I've decided to stop inventing words for a while. It's too difficult.

Cheers,
Shaun




What? The word? Oh yes, it was crenellated. (Probably picked it up reading one of my Bernard Cornwell grail quest books).

 

[Norm]

But did it mean the same that you thought it should mean?

 

[swee'pea99]

You remind me of 'The meaning of Tingo', a book containing words and expressions which mostly have no direct English equivalent. Such as:

Plimpplamppletteren (Dutch) - skimming stones across water
​

Areodjarekput (Inuit) - to swap wives just for a few days
​

Anaranjear (Spanish) - to throw oranges at someone
​

'Tingo', apparently, comes from Easter Island, and means 'to take all the objects one desires from the house of a friend, one at a time, by asking to borrow them'.

 

[Archie_tect]

Not corrugated then... then only meaning I know for crenellated is a manor house or castle that has had crenellations added [battlements to you and me] but it might be a different spelling...

 

[Archie_tect]

I like discumnockerate... which means to disable or damage irreparably.
[but I might try some selective tingoing later].

 

[Cheddar George]

The master of word invention was Lewis Carroll. About five minutes after inventing "chortle" by merging Chuckle and snort he decided that there was no word for words formed in this way ......... so he invented "portmanteau".

Genius.

 

[Mark_Robson]

When ah wos a lad downt pit we used to use a lot of corrugated tin sheeting and we called it wriggly tin. So your garage would have a wriggly roof.

I've actually started to use the word Mickled. Last week I Mickled my chain and it came up lovely.

 

[JonnyBlade]

oojarkapib

 

[wobbler]

Decipecker, a very small measurement, not invented by me, but an engineer where I once worked.

 

[Shaun]

Not corrugated then... then only meaning I know for crenellated is a manor house or castle that has had crenellations added [battlements to you and me] but it might be a different spelling...

Yup, them's the ones - I've been reading his Grail quest books and there's lot of scrapping and arrow firing from up in those there crenellations. Must have got stuck in my head without me realising where it had come from!!

 

[asterix]

The master of word invention was Lewis Carroll. About five minutes after inventing "chortle" by merging Chuckle and snort he decided that there was no word for words formed in this way ......... so he invented "portmanteau".

Genius.

When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less.

 

[Melonfish]

aren't crenellations the specific sticky up bits on defence walls and castles, designed to be hidden behind aren't they?
not read the grail series from cornewell, got all the sharpe books though and been meaning to get the starbuck stuff.

 

[Norm]

and been meaning to get the starbuck stuff.

Their flat white is prety good, but only comes in small cups so I usually go with a latté.

Crenellations and castellations both originally mean battlements but crenellation, in particular, has now picked up a wider usage when pretentious peeps want a posh-sounding word for ridged.

 

[Fnaar]

crenellation, in particular, has now picked up a wider usage when pretentious peeps want a posh-sounding word for ridged.

As in "don't wear yer keks under yer cycle shorts, or things'll get all crenellated".

 

[Shaun]

As in "don't wear yer keks under yer cycle shorts, or things'll get all crenellated".