Language in motion

Which very popular word was invented by Charles Dickens? 10 made-up words

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As masters of language, writers sometimes find that their imagination and creativity go far beyond the vocabulary the world has to offer. In order to put their ideas into writing, they have to create new words that eventually become part of the dictionary. Here are 10 terms and expressions used in modern language that you probably didn’t know were invented by famous writers.

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Dr. Seuss’ talent for telling fantastic stories through rhymes is well known. But very few people know that the creator of The Grinch and The Cat in the Hat was also responsible for the existence of the word "nerd."

In his 1950 book, If I Ran the Zoo, a little boy daydreams about what kind of animals he would have if he were in charge of a hypothetical zoo: "a Nerkle, a Nerd and a Seersucker". Although the term described an imaginary being -and the exact origin of a slang word can never be certain- it’s believed it was later adopted by students to refer to anyone with superior intelligence but not many social skills.

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Nowadays, freelance work is very widespread, especially among young people. But did you know that the word "freelancer" originated in the 19th century? The term first appeared in the historical novel Ivanhoe by Scottish novelist, poet, and historian Sir Walter Scott.

In the book, published in 1819 but set in England in the Middle Ages, Scott refers to mercenaries free of all allegiance who offer their services to anyone willing to pay them to fight for any nation. Thus, from the mixture of the words "free" and "lancers" came the term that today is given to those who work independently rather than on a regular salary basis.

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Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines the word "pandemonium" as a "wild uproar" or "a chaotic situation". The origin of this word dates back to the 17th century. In 1667, English poet John Milton first used the term to name the capital of hell, home of the main character of his epic poem Paradise Lost.

"Pandemonium" is a combination of the Greek prefix pan-, which means "all", and the Late Latin daemonium, meaning "evil spirit". Although today we no longer use the term to refer to the actual location of Satan and the fallen angels, the word continues to describe an infernal place or situation.

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Nowadays, there is no doubt that the word "cyberspace" refers to the online world of computer networks. While it may seem that the term has been in our language forever, it was actually first used by American-Canadian speculative fiction writer William Ford Gibson in the 1982 short story Burning Chrome.

Two years later, the author expanded the concept in his novel Neuromancer to describe a fictitious computer network containing vast amounts of information that could be exploited for wealth and power. Ring a bell? "Cyberspace" has since become a widely used word in many languages.

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While the feeling of being bored must have existed since ancient times, the word for it was not put into writing until the mid-19th century. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first written record of the word "boredom" appears in Charles Dickens' 1852 novel Bleak House.

However, some historians have found antecedents that predate Dickens use of the term. Lord Byron used "bores" and "bored" in his 1823 epic poem Don Juan. And a few years later, Herman Melville used other variations of the term, like "bore" and "bored to death". While we can’t be sure who wrote the word first, its literary origin is undeniable.

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"Serendipity" is known as a fortuitous and unforeseen finding or discovery, something that happened by chance but still has value. This term was coined in 1754 by British writer Horace Walpole. It derives from a traditional Persian story in which the princes of Serendip turn to chance to find the solution to their problems.

In this case, we can be absolutely sure that "serendipity" is a Walpole creation. The author himself explains how he conceived the term in one of the countless letters he wrote throughout his life. In those letters, we can find evidence that he invented at least 200 words, although most of them aren’t used in modern everyday language.

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In 1920, when he was writing his next work, Czech playwright Karel Čapek desperately needed an original word that could define human-like machines created by a company to fulfill the hard tasks that people no longer wanted to do.

The first name that came to Čapek’s mind was "labori", from the Latin labor, meaning "work". However, his brother Josef was not very convinced and suggested "roboti", inspired by the Czech word robota, meaning "servitude" or "hard work." In 1922, the term "robot" made its way into our language when the play R.U.R. was translated into English.

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Well, maybe he didn’t invent it, but we have Mark Twain to thank for first putting in writing the term "hard-boiled" in relation to human character. As a writer of local color, Twain often used colloquialisms and regionalisms that he heard from other people and, by writing them down, made them familiar to the entire population.

In this sense, while the expression was probably known in some circles, the father of American literature was the first to use it as an adjective meaning "emotionally hardened, devoid of sentimentality".

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Although it comes from ancient Greek, the word "utopia" in its current sense was first used in 1516. Inspired by the New World, English philosopher and author Sir Thomas More imagined a fictional island society where everything worked in harmony.

"Utopia" literally translates as "no place", coming from the Greek οὐ ("not") and τόπος ("place"). The term popularized by More became so widespread that, over time, its meaning changed and is now used not only to refer to a specific place but to describe perfect scenarios or thoughts that are hard to attain.

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One of the most important pieces of English literature is also responsible for the name of a popular social network. We’re talking about The Canterbury Tales, a collection of 24 stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century.

In one of the tales, the English poet coined the onomatopoeia "twitter" to refer to the soft singing of a caged bird crying out for freedom. The neologism was later included by the Oxford Dictionary as a "short burst of inconsequential information". Fast forward to the 21st century, and American Internet entrepreneur Jack Dorsey uses the term to refer to the short, frequent posts on his now-famous platform. That also explains why Twitter’s logo was a bird!

One of these things is not like the others

Produce in disguise: 10 fruits and vegetables that are not what they seem

The classification of food can be challenging because it often relies on subjective criteria. Not everyone utilizes ingredients in the same way or for the same purposes, so how we see these items is influenced by cultural and social factors.

An example of this is what produce we consider to be a fruit, a vegetable, or a nut, which doesn’t always align with its botanical classification. Let’s look at some fruits and vegetables that are not what they seem to be.

Let’s start with a classic. Most people know that tomatoes are a fruit commonly used as a vegetable (The U.S. Supreme Court once had to rule on this due to customs regulations). They have seeds surrounded by a fleshy pulp. But did you know that tomatoes are actually berries? Botanically, ‘berry’ is used for all fruit without a pit or stone where each flower develops into a single fruit.

Tomatoes are part of the Nightshade family, meaning they are related to chillies, potatoes, and the tobacco plant.

This one is for all the avocado toast lovers: Avocados are a fruit. A berry, more specifically. While in Western countries avocados are used in savoury preparations, many cultures around the world use them in desserts and sweet drinks.

But aren’t berries fruits without a stone? One would think that the stone is hard to miss in this case. Botanists are still arguing on this one, but the general consensus is that the avocado seed does not fulfill the requirements to be considered a stone. Some common plants that you might not know were related to the avocado are the bay laurel and the cinnamon tree.

A staple in the nut/dried fruit category, peanuts are neither fruits nor nuts in a botanical sense. They are actually the seed of a legume, but even then, they are unique because they are the only legume that develops underground.

Peanuts are classified and treated as nuts for culinary purposes, so people often think that a peanut allergy is the same as a nut allergy, but these are two very distinct (although dangerous) reactions. As part of the Fabaceae family, peanuts are related to soybeans, chickpeas, lentils, and peas.

Zucchinis are used as a vegetable, but they are multiseeded, fleshy, and have an edible outer layer. Rings any bells? That’s right, zucchinis are a type of berry. A member of the Cucurbitaceae family, they are relatives of cucumber, squash, watermelon, and the luffa (yes, the one used in the shower).

As an ingredient, zucchinis are usually harvested before they mature, because ripe zucchinis have tougher skin, harder seeds, and are bitter.

Also known as maize, corn is used in savoury and sweet preparations alike. Classified as a grain for culinary purposes, it is actually a grass that bears fruit. So, technically, corn is a fruit.

But where are the seeds and the skin? In the grass (Poaceae) family, each flower has a seed that fuses with the skin and forms a kernel. Other relatives that behave in the same way are wheat, rice, sugarcane, and barley.

Mushrooms are vegetables in a culinary sense, and a "fruit" body in a botanical sense, but they are neither vegetables nor fruits, because they are not plants. Culinary mushrooms are edible fungi, and as such, they have a totally different classification.

Mushrooms are not the only fungi that have culinary uses: other cases include yeast used for leavening or alcoholic beverages, fermented foods, or the mold used for blue cheese.

Rhubarb is a vegetable, but is traditionally used for tarts, jams, and other sweet desserts. The only edible part of the plant is the stalk, as the leaves can be toxic.

Edible rhubarb is a hybrid, and it’s not closely related to other edible plants, although it is a distant relative of buckwheat.

Also called capsicum or sweet pepper, bell peppers are a berry of the Nightshade family (which makes them a relative of tomatoes and potatoes). Although they are classified as berries, they lack one of their main characteristics: instead of having seeds surrounded by fleshy pulp, plants in the capsicum species are hollow.

Fun fact: plants in the capsicum species have no relation whatsoever to the pepper spice, but they were given that name because Europeans used the word ‘pepper’ for all plants and spices that were pungent.

Despite their name, strawberries are not berries in the botanical sense of the word, because they develop multiple fruits from each flower, and they don’t have seeds (even if they look like they do). Historically, the English language has used the word ‘berry’ for any small, brightly colored, and juicy edible fruit.

So, where do strawberries come from? They are a hybrid, and they belong to the Rosaceae family, which makes them a relative of apples, cherries, peaches, almonds, and roses.

From a culinary point of view, cashews are classified as nuts. But nuts, in their botanical sense, are fruits protected by a hard shell that doesn’t open on their own. Cashews are actually drupes, or stone fruits.

In this case, what we eat is the seed of the cashew fruit. As a member of the Anacardiaceae family, cashews are related to mangoes, sumac, and (by a more recent classification) to pistachios.