Making up language

Words that were invented by fiction writers, and now we all use them

Image: yeonhee

Sometimes, preexisting words just don’t cut it for writers. So they invent new ones. That was the case for terms like utopia, robot, and nerd. Whether they grew to be used in philosophical texts or on playgrounds, they have certainly entered our vocabulary. Let’s take a look at 11 examples!

Image: Jamie Street

The word has been many things, from a schoolyard insult to a badge of honor for having certain interests. It first appeared in Dr. Seuss’s 1950 book If I Ran the Zoo, where a strange creature called a "Nerd" appears among other fanciful beasts.

Seuss didn’t define it as brainy or awkward, but within a few years, the word was popping up in slang to describe socially inept people or bookworms.

Image: Shahrooz Shekaraubi

Today, when we say "cyberspace," we mean the intangible digital world we enter when we go online. But the word was coined by sci-fi writer William Gibson in his 1982 short story Burning Chrome.

Gibson later famously described cyberspace as a "consensual hallucination" shared by billions of connected users. The term predates the World Wide Web by nearly a decade, yet it foresaw the immersive, sometimes overwhelming, reality of living digitally.

Image: Markus Winkler

Today, when we say we have "debunked" a myth, we mean that we have exposed it as false. The word itself, however, originated as a literary invention in 1923, coined by American writer William E. Woodward in his book Bunk.

Woodward used debunk to mean stripping nonsense, or "bunk" of its dignity, a definition that closely aligns with how the word is still used today.

Image: ThisisEngineering

Today, we picture robots as everything from Roombas to humanoid androids, but the word itself dates back to a 1920 Czech play, R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) by Karel Čapek.

The term comes from robota, meaning "forced labor" or "drudgery." In the play, however, the "robots" were not mechanical but biological constructs, closer to what we might now call clones. Both the term and the concept spread quickly across Europe and the United States, reaching the vocabulary of more and more writers.

Image: Miguel Valencia

When we say something is "utopic," we mean it’s impossibly ideal. The term "utopia" was coined by Sir Thomas More in his 1516 book Utopia, where he described an imaginary island society with perfect laws, harmony, and equality.

But the trick was in the name: in Greek, ou-topos means "no place" while eu-topos means "good place." The word took off quickly, giving us not only "utopia" but also its darker twin, "dystopia," which would dominate much of modern literature.

Image: Michelle Baker

Few words sound as delightful as what they mean, and "serendipity" is one of them. It refers to a happy accident, a lucky discovery made while looking for something else.

The term was coined in 1754 by Horace Walpole, a British writer and politician, inspired by a Persian fairy tale titled The Three Princes of Serendip. In the story, the princes are constantly making discoveries "by accident and sagacity."

Image: De an Sun

Fans of Harry Potter know Lumos as the spell that lights the tip of a wand. J. K. Rowling coined the word by drawing on Latin roots, such as lumen, meaning "light."

"Lumos" has since slipped into everyday use to the point that some smartphone voice assistants recognize it as a command to turn on a device’s flashlight.

Image: Andres Iga

The word hobbit instantly evokes images of small, hairy-footed inhabitants of the Shire, thanks to J. R. R. Tolkien. A trained philologist with a deep fascination for languages, Tolkien coined numerous terms, including hobbit and mithril, that have since entered popular culture.

The word became widely recognized even beyond The Lord of the Rings fan base. While hobbit originally referred to a fictional race in Tolkien’s legendarium, it is now sometimes used informally to evoke something small, cozy, or diminutive in character.

Image: Gaelle Marcel

Today, we use tween to describe the awkward stage between childhood and adolescence, typically covering ages 9 to 12. The word itself, however, traces back to J. R. R. Tolkien, who first introduced the idea of "tweens."

In The Fellowship of the Ring, hobbits in their "tweens" were those between 20 and 33; no longer teenagers, but not yet considered fully adult in hobbit society. Marketers later borrowed the catchy term to describe human preteens, and it stuck.

Image: CHI CHEN

The word "gossip" feels inseparable from modern life. Yet it began as the Old English term godsibb, meaning a "godparent" or a close, trusted companion. It was Geoffrey Chaucer, in The Canterbury Tales, who helped nudge the meaning toward talk and chatter.

Over time, the term drifted further, shifting from "companion" to "idle talk" and, eventually, to its modern association with rumor and speculation.

Image: Sarah Kilian

We all know what it means to be a butterfingers: clumsy, prone to dropping things, with hands seemingly as slippery as if coated in butter. This playful insult is often credited to Charles Dickens, who used it in his novel The Pickwick Papers to mock a character’s poor grip on objects.

Keeping score of idioms

Do you know how to throw a curveball? Sports sayings we use every day!

Can you identify idioms that originated in sports? Maybe it’s trickier than you think. Sure, some expressions are obvious: Why else would we talk about "throwing a curveball"? But in this article, you might find a few sayings that you thought had other origins. Can you guess which sport has introduced the most expressions on this list? Let’s step up to the plate and dissect 13 sports idioms!

Gold is such a valuable material that "going for gold" appears valid in many different arenas. That very expression could have originated during the Gold Rush era, for example.

But the phrase became popular via repetition in sporting competitions. When athletes applied their full efforts to win first place, they were revered for "going for gold." Today, we use it for anyone striving for excellence in any discipline.

We have gotten very used to using "hands down" as an expression of certainty and hyperbole. "Chocolate ice cream is my favorite, hands down." But what did the hands ever have to do with it?

It traces back to horse racing. When a jockey was far ahead in a race, they would relax their grip on the reins and lower their hands: In short, a certain win. Over time, "hands down" became a term to emphasize something as undeniably the best or easiest.

You can’t be blamed for thinking that a "full-court press" was some sort of judicial strategy. But it isn’t; The court here refers to a basketball game.

It’s a tactic that involves the defending team advancing and disrupting the opponent’s play, applying pressure across the entire court. That’s why we use this expression for all-out team efforts to achieve something, be it in business, politics, or personal matters.

In baseball, a "curveball" is a pitch that spins and curves unpredictably. Basically, a batter’s nightmare, because it is designed to catch them off guard and make them miss.

The dramatic image of facing an obstacle set up by the competition clicked with people. So they started using the expression "being thrown a curveball" when something tricky or unexpected was coming their way.

When you hear that someone "won by a nose," do you picture two human faces lunging for a finish line? You may have, but that’s not the precise origin of the idiom.

It comes from horse racing, where a horse’s snout is really the first part of him (and his rider) to cross the line. Today, we use it for scenarios where we win what we want by a small margin. Like getting to our flight right before the gates close!

A frustrated chef in a cooking competition might also "throw in the towel," but that’s not the origin of this metaphor for surrender. This saying, like so many others, comes from boxing.

When a boxer is taking a beating and can't continue, a dramatic way for the trainer to interrupt or surrender the game would be to throw a towel into the ring. The image has evolved to stand for any form of surrender.

In American football and rugby, you have to catch and hold on to the ball if you want to keep the game alive. Let the ball slip from your hands and you’ll also be letting the rest of your team down.

That’s the origin of the expression. Dropping the ball means someone fumbled an endeavor, usually compromising the luck of other people.

We all understand that this alludes to a person rooting for you and helping. Maybe when you heard this phrase you pictured someone figuratively in the corner of your mind, or of your heart –or of any room you were in.

But the origin is much more literal. As any boxing fan knows, the player’s support staff stay at a designated ringside corner. They are the ones tending to the player with help and encouragement between rounds.

You probably didn’t think that stepping up to the plate was advancing towards a dining table where a delicious feast awaited. But someone else probably did.

The actual meaning of the expression (which means to "rise up to the occasion") comes from baseball, where "the plate" refers to home plate –the spot where the batter stands to face the pitcher. If you are approaching it, it means it’s your turn to take action, face the challenge and deliver results.

This one is easy to guess: Of course, it comes from boxing, where expecting blows is the norm. What isn’t the norm is to courageously accept punches in the face.

To take something on the chin means to face a figurative blow with resilience. A hit directly to the chin is one of the most jarring blows a fighter can endure, so when you are congratulated for having done something equivalent, it means you have withstood a challenge with grace.

When someone says something is a "slam dunk," you probably imagine a sure success or an effortless win.

The term, as you may know, comes straight from basketball. A "slam dunk" is when a player jumps high and forcefully scores by slamming the ball directly into the hoop. Not effortless at all, but by the time the player has the opportunity to perform a slam dunk, their win is usually a sure thing.

No, it does not derive from people putting aside their fancy gloves before having tea. It comes from harsh, bare-knuckle boxing.

In the early days of the sport, fighters wore padded gloves to soften their punches and reduce injury. When the gloves came off, the fight became more brutal and raw: No more pretense. Over time, the phrase evolved to describe any situation where politeness or restraint is abandoned.

It isn’t a race to a punch bowl at a party. This is yet another expression derived from the world of boxing, which, as you have seen, is a sport that launched more expressions into our language than any other!

This one refers to moments when one fighter manages to hit the other before receiving a blow.

We now use it for people who seize an opportunity and act faster than an opposing party.