"That's Utter Nonsense!" Made-up Words

Whether you admit it or not, you probably make up silly little songs to sing while doing the laundry or crooning to your pets. Making up words might come just as naturally to your creative brain. There is something inherently pleasing about this foolish vocabulary. 

Let’s go back to our children’s book roots for some quality nonsense words.

Photo Credit: Aimee Ray

Edward Lear is famous for his nonsense verse and limericks. In all your renditions of “The Owl and the Pussycat,” did you notice that runcible isn’t even a real word? It sounds like a perfectly legitimate kind of spoon. Surely, the dish could have run off with a runcible instead…

If you’ve ever tried to draw a picture of a Jabberwock before looking in a book, then you appreciate that Lewis Carroll’s "Jabberwocky" is some imaginative nonsense indeed. It is of the portmanteau or "word blend" variety.      

Winnie the Pooh and Piglet’s fear has a name and that name is Heffalump, an elephant-like creature and the stuff of Pooh’s nightmares. We should also credit A.A. Milne with “Poohsticks,” a game of dropping sticks into the river over the side of a bridge; whoever’s stick emerges on the other side first is victorious.  

Allow me to nutshellize this post: nonsense is fun, silly, strange and sometimes just plain convincing. 

Do you dare use made up words? Mayhaps.