Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Friday, July 06, 2007
Cromulent
It's a perfectly cromulent word.
Cromulent is really the best word to go in that sentence, isn't it? There's no other word in the English language that fully encompasses that scope.
2 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Ironic though, is it not, that cromulent was coined as a nonce word that clearly didn't previously exist, to add humour to another coinage 'embiggens', as in:
Hoover: Before I came to springfield I never knew 'embiggens' was a word Krabapple: It's a perfectly cromulent word
The irony is that now it is a cromulent word and the joke no longer makes sense. Imagine ten or so years down the track and the kids who watched that episode and laughed, who will then probably have kids of their own. If they watch that episode they'd simply not get the joke as 'cromulent' will have become part of their everyday vocabulary.
The power of the Simpsons.
Since it exists though, we have to come to some agreement as to what it means. Based on the otherwise non-existent coinage 'embiggens' to which 'cromulent' pertains, I'd suggest that 'cromulent' means something like 'while it isn't listed in a standard dictionary, its meaning is transparent, is therefore completely understandable and is, in virtue of that, a word'. I think 'cromulent' conveys something a little more sophisticated and complex than merely 'acceptable' or some such near-synonym.
Interesting. I don't think it applies only to words that aren't listed in a standard dictionary though, I take it as more d'usage courant, kind of commonly used and the sort of thing you can reasonably expect anyone to understand.
"I'm surprised you aren't familiar with the phrase 'right of first refusal'. It's a perfectly cromulent legal term."
2 comments:
Ironic though, is it not, that cromulent was coined as a nonce word that clearly didn't previously exist, to add humour to another coinage 'embiggens', as in:
Hoover: Before I came to springfield I never knew 'embiggens' was a word
Krabapple: It's a perfectly cromulent word
The irony is that now it is a cromulent word and the joke no longer makes sense. Imagine ten or so years down the track and the kids who watched that episode and laughed, who will then probably have kids of their own. If they watch that episode they'd simply not get the joke as 'cromulent' will have become part of their everyday vocabulary.
The power of the Simpsons.
Since it exists though, we have to come to some agreement as to what it means. Based on the otherwise non-existent coinage 'embiggens' to which 'cromulent' pertains, I'd suggest that 'cromulent' means something like 'while it isn't listed in a standard dictionary, its meaning is transparent, is therefore completely understandable and is, in virtue of that, a word'. I think 'cromulent' conveys something a little more sophisticated and complex than merely 'acceptable' or some such near-synonym.
Interesting. I don't think it applies only to words that aren't listed in a standard dictionary though, I take it as more d'usage courant, kind of commonly used and the sort of thing you can reasonably expect anyone to understand.
"I'm surprised you aren't familiar with the phrase 'right of first refusal'. It's a perfectly cromulent legal term."
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