A long time ago, one of our little neighbor girls invented a perfect word to describe a large bird dropping on the seat of a playground swingset. “Ooh, there’s a huge swadoo of bird crap!” Our family adopted her word and it became part of our private lexicon. “Look at that swadoo of ants crawling over that melted ice cream.” “There was a swadoo of people waiting in line for the concert.”
You may have heard that Eskimos have many words for “snow,” each describing different aspects of the white stuff. It’s my belief there aren’t enough words in the English language. They all seem to require modifiers to make the meaning clear. “He spoke softly” could be “He murmured or whispered” but that’s about it. I think there need to be more words for specific qualities of an action.
Let’s start with the verb “to look.” So much is conveyed with a look yet we only have a few words for it: to gaze, stare, look, see, focus. If you’re a writer, how many times have you found yourself trying to convey messages with the eyes while hobbled by that handful of words? I think it’s our duty to add more words to our language. Today we’re going to make some up. From now on you won’t have to wonder if a person’s eyes were narrowed in anger or suspicion, because there will be a specific word for each.
Here’s an example to get you started. Instead of “He gazed at her with regret in his eyes,” we can now say “He preandicated her.” Or “His preandication let her know he really cared.”
Hey, this is harder than it looks. I dare you to find new words for the following kinds of “looks” and use the new word in a sentence. Go on! Just tackle one of them.
To look yearningly at someone:
To look with sexually charged desire:
To look wistfully at something beyond reach:
To narrow eyes in anger:
To narrow eyes in suspicion:
To look with jealousy:
To squint, reflecting physical pain:
To widen eyes in mock surprise:
To stare in sincere disbelief:
A mischievous/teasing look:
A cocky/smirking look:
Any other kinds of looking words you can think of are welcome. We need all the words we can get!
Payton looked at the patrons with such a malleash look. They froze in their seats.
Great! But delete “look” since “malleash” now replaces it in our language. From the context I’d guess it means something like a cold, hard, disapproving look.
“Payton maleashed the patrons. They froze in their seats.”
Malleash was supposed to replace a cocky/smirky look. But malleash sounds as though it is a derivative of malevolent. It works for me as a cold,hard,disapproving look.
To stare in sincere disbelief:
Could be:
He goggled at her (but that’s a real word!)
Megan spikked at the beautiful blonde coming onto her husband.
to spik: to look with jealousy. Coined circa 2007, believed to be an amalgamation of ‘to spit’ and ‘to spike’. Also possibly an omomatopoeia for the noise you make when you’re so jealous you might throw up. Spik. Spi-ik. Spi-iiiiik.
Hilarious, Imogen, and the perfect word for that spiteful, jealous look.
Malleash does have that root of “mal”-latin for “bad” which works well.
How could I leave “goggle” off the list of looks. Maybe because it’s not one you see in romance writing very often.
Aren’t we limited though by not being able to simply use “His eyes traveled up her body and came to rest on her face”? After all the edits where I’ve had to replace eyes with gaze, I STILL sometimes forget and make a person’s eyes do callistenics—scanning, dipping, crawling, stroking, etc.
Great post! I am a firm believer in the ongoing improvement of the English language. Why should the Germans have all the fun of creating new and terribly precise words? Adding words to the English language is an old and noble tradition—Shakespeare made up hundreds of ‘em. (My favorite is “fishify,” which means, “to turn someone into a fish.” There’s not a lot of call for it in everyday conversation, but I’m always on the lookout for an opportunity.)
The Internet is great for new words. http://www.urbandictionary.com gets new words every day. Where would we be without words like himbo (a male bimbo), locationship (a relationship you have while on vacation), or stripsy (The post-drunken, post-tipsy state at which the removal of clothing begins)?
My husband I and use “nestle” a lot for just about everything. “Nestle yourself” means calm down. Quiesce is another good one. You can use it for anything.
I’m in a molecular Biology department, and I pick up all sorts of words that have no meaning to me. I think my editor might take them out, though.
Let me say, that I have been goggled, and well goggled. I was on vacation in Hawaii, when a battleship of sailors docked, and let me tell you, those men had goggle down to a fine art.
I have never been so goggled, ever. I got on the first plane and flew home, because my fiance was spikked to the max degree.
Kate Rothwell turned me on to a cool old word that was new to me. “Gamahuch,” a Victorian term for a blow job. Or maybe it’s gamahuche, but they definitely used it as a verb “gamahuching.”
But this is still not helping with the myriad kinds of looks that don’t have words of their own.
To look with sexually charged desire: maybe “rowring”
“He rowred me and I felt the burn clear across the room.”
Bonnie,
You tickle me and sadden me in one fell swoop. I love playing with language and I’ve often thought we need some more words to convey emotional things….and smells. After all there are some 70ish words, I think, for the concept of walk. So good on you for trying to add to the lexicon.
The sad part… is
This is an idiom a figure of speech. It has a name. Synecdoche
and/or Metonymy
This is not a great sin in language. It’s playing with language, as I know from this post you are wont to do. So enjoy all those flying body parts. The only people they bother are people without a good command of the language.
So, for my addition…I didn’t actually make up a word, just morphed one to my meaning…
She chartreused the Versace bag until her eyes wanted to bleed.
chartreused = stared at with pea-green envy.
To Stare in sincere disbelief: Togwaddled.
We study the constructions at our house. Instructions on how to construct a toy, chair, or anything necessary for little ones at Christmas. My son came up with this.
He also came up with copulator. LOLOL I still ask my husband if I can borrow his on occasion.
Oh Nancy…I’m LOL. Togwaddle. Snort. I think the proper definition of that one is someone who is walking up the street with their clothes mal-adjusted in a very uncomfortable fashion.
Mr. Higgins togwaddled up the street, hitching his hips at a most uncomfortable angle trying to dislodge his underwear from the crack of his tush.
LOL. most entertaining.