Words sometimes don’t come easy…

Bouncebackability. You know that wasn’t even a real word until 2004.

I was thinking on that this week when I realised that, what I need now, is some umm, well some… bouncebackability.

I like the word, partly because it really annoys those stuffy people who hate it and who hate the thought that new words can still be created and then get widespread usage just through a campaign on a silly football programme.

The professor types I heard giving out about bouncebackability are exactly the people who should know that the language is always in a state of change and new words come and go.

If it didn’t we’d still all be doing the ‘methinks and forsooth’ and all that Willie Shakespeare stuff.

Methinks that might verily be troublesome indeed.

Yet in the midst of all that I also wondered what it would be like to be the person who created a word.

You know, somebody who came up with a word that could go into a dictionary.

By that I mean in real print, verified and all by the stuffy professors who hate the thought of giving approval to this type of thing.

I say this because when I was young and at school I did get to put some words into a dictionary.

However, because the dictionary in question was borrowed from one of my sisters, I wasn’t supposed to write ‘Spurs are great’ in it and I’m almost certain I got a smack around the ear for my trouble.

Coming up with a good word though is difficult.

I mean it’s easy enough to come up with a word. But coming up with one and then trying to think on what that word might mean. Well that’s a different story altogether.

For instance, take the word Humungify.

Well, actually you can’t take it because it’s not a word. But what if it were, what could it mean? I guess if you were the person who came up with it (and I was) you could give it any meaning you wanted.

To be honest I think it’s a nasty word. I mean it’s like something you might do to somebody who really annoyed you. I can think of a few right now I’d like to humungify for instance.

All the same it’s no bouncebackability.

I mean there’s a word and, as soon as you say it, you know exactly what it means.

But then I wondered - is it not cheating when you just stick three different words together to make a new word.

Or is it just clever?

I mean I spent ages coming up with a word like humungify when I could just as easily have looked around for three words to stick together that might have done the same job. Something perhaps like umm…Punchbashbatter.

In the end I’ve decided that I like the idea of a complete new word, not made up of other words even if it is all a wee bit Willie Wonka.

I mean had you ever heard of a vernicious knid or a wangdoozle before you watched the original, and by far and away the best, Willie Wonka movie?

It was probably around the time I’d gone off on the Willie Wonka tangent too that I decided I had a great new word to get me on the road to bouncebackability.

Yep, all I need to do now is to get lotterified at the weekend.

Although I would need to be careful about how much I’d spend on the tickets.

After all, last thing I’d want is to get humungified if my numbers didn’t come up…