According to Jacqueline Morley in William Shakespeare: A Very Peculiar History, Shakespeare probably made up about 1,700 new words.
Here are some of them: assassination, courtship, outbreak, fashionable, and exposure.
And a few that didn't make it: insultment, unbuild, and exsufflicate (which means puffed up--whew, glad that one didn't catch on).
Get out a piece of paper--any old kind where you can make a big mess and scratch out words.
Next, find a dictionary--a paper dictionary works best for this.
Open the dictionary, stick out your finger, and randomly choose three words. I picked:
fugleman: a leader
campus: the grounds of a school
louver: a slatted, ventilated opening
Now it's time to create our very own word. Choose one syllable from each word to create a brand new one, along with its meaning:
fugcamer: a camera that works especially well in bad weather
puslouman: a person who works in a hospital
leloupus: a French pastry
You try! We may not be the next William Shakespeares (or maybe we are), but we can have fun adding our own words to the English language.
Mancamlou! That's "Yellow Pencils" talk for good-bye!
