You think a word sounds good and you want it in your story. But is it really a word? Does it matter? It is, after all, your story. But, then again, if the made-up word you want to use only makes sense to you, then your readers certainly won’t understand what you’re trying to say.

I think the first time I became intrigued by made-up words was when, as a child, watching “Mary Poppins”, I enjoyed some of the words used to humor the plot, like supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. It’s in the dictionary now (and it’s in spell check, too), but it wasn’t in 1964 when it was used in a song by that title in the movie. What does it mean? Extraordinarily good and wonderful. It’s a nonsense word. It’s a word used to express something and nothing, especially when you really have nothing to say.

So, how did these made-up, nonsensical words come to be? Well, mostly it’s due to humans’ inability to pronounce words correctly. The result is phonetically altered words like:

- supposably – He supposably said that.

- axed (yes, really, people do pronounce asked decidedly incorrectly, making the sk sound more like an x) – She asked him to help with her homework.

- Irregardless (this is one we’re all guilty of trying to use and it’s actually not a word – or, perhaps I should correct myself, it wasn’t considered a word until dictionaries started listing it as a word – it’s actually been used incorrectly since the early 1900s, regardless of it’s not actually being a word, although, now, it is?) - Irregardless of what Mom says, I’m going anyway.

- firstly (it seems silly to use firstly, when it’s much simpler to just use first) – Firstly, you must go to the store to purchase some milk.  

- prolly (a texting non-word, this relaxed pronunciation contraction, as the dictionaries refer to words like this, and, although perhaps not really a word, it does show up in some dictionaries, although it’s not on spell-check) – You prolly won’t like what I have to say.

- gonna (another relaxed pronunciation contraction) – I’m gonna go.

- outta (another relaxed pronunciation contraction) – Get outta here!

- snuck (the past tense of sneak is actually sneaked, not snuck, although snuck has been used since the 1800s - -eak words do not become -uck in the past tense, or does it?) – He snuck up on the bandit.

- madded (recognized in dictionaries, but not widely accepted) – Her excuses madded the family to no end.

- maddish (also recognized in dictionaries, but not widely accepted) – His useless attitude made all of us maddish.

- participator (doesn’t the user of this word really mean participant?) – She was a keen participator in many crafty events.

- impactful (believe it or not, this word is in the dictionary, but it’s only been around since the 1960s when it was invented by advertising agencies who wanted to describe their advertisements as having a big impact) – The new campaign will certainly be impactful on this product.

- ginormous (around since 1942, but it is now in the dictionaries) – His house was ginormous.

- humongous (dictionary approved, apparently) – This is going to be humongous.

- nother (surprisingly, this word, sometimes spelled ‘nother, has been around since the fourteenth-century) – The dictionary certainly accepts this whole nother word which has been misperceived as actually being a word.

- funner (and funnest, both sometimes permissible)– Now what could be funner than going to the zoo.

- alot (not a lot, which of course means a lot, or allot, which means to allocate or assign – spell check certainly doesn’t accept alot as a word) – She has alot of nerve.

- misunderestimate (packs a powerful punch, but it’s not a word) – You don’t want to misunderestimate him.

So many of these words, or non-words, are a result, not just of mispronunciation, but also of our current situation of being downright bad spellers. Like:

- expresso (really? It’s actually spelled espresso) – I’ll have an expresso after dinner.

- sherbert (a frozen, sweet treat like ice cream, or a word that remarkably rhymes with Herbert – the correct spelling is sherbet) – Enjoy the sherbert, Herbert.

- flustrated (cute, but it’s not actually a word: it’s either frustrated or flustered, but not both) – She felt flustrated.

- conversating (or conversated) – The two of them were conversating intently.

- definately (a mangled distortion, somewhere between definitely and defiantly that even spell check doesn’t accept) – You are definately right.

And then there’s the annoying overuse of acronyms as words. Some are pretty straightforward and have been around for a long time, like AWOL and ASAP. But the others? Well, they take some getting used to. Like:

- OMG – why not just say: Oh my god!

- U – a texting misnomer for you

- LOL – I always thought this was a name of a person until someone informed me, through a massive display of giggles, that it meant laugh out loud.

- YOLO – Also sounds like a person’s name, but it’s actually much deeper than a name. It means you only live once.

- KISS – A pretty simple word, really. As an acronym, however, it means keep it simple, stupid.

And the made-up hyphenated words like:

- made-up – I enjoy using made-up words. I’ve made up a few myself.

- detail-orientated (should be oriented) – Those people are very detail-orientated.

There’s nothing quite so satisfying as having the ability to make up words, with the simple addition of a little hyphen. There are plenty more non-word examples (like non-word) that I haven’t cited. You may enjoy studying the provenance of some of these non-words, especially since some of them have, miraculously, and definitely, found their way into the dictionary.

Words. Nothing expresses a writer’s mind better than words: both made-up and real. So, do we worry about the non-word appearances in our writing? Or not? I guess that’s a personal choice, one that reflects our personal power of expression. Just so long as we don’t overdo the non-word usage and we don’t make our writing incomprehensible. Remember, we want our readers to understand what we’ve written.