VERNON, Conn. — Think you nailed your vocabulary lessons in school? Try inventing a word.
That's what sixth and seventh graders at Vernon Center Middle School spent several class sessions doing as they learned the ins and outs of language.
Creating new words as years go on, generations grow up, and new world events happen is not uncommon.
In 2021, Merriam-Webster's added about 900 words or new definitions in its dictionary, including long COVID, super-spreader, and FTW (for the win).
In Vernon, sixth-grader Blake Lewis' word was judged to be so original, it had received an honorable mention from the New York Times vocabulary challenge.
His teacher, Regina Lee, praised her students for their innovation.
“When I first gave the kids this assignment some of them were really intimated. The concept of creating words is difficult. And there’s a tendency for older people to dismiss new words created and spoken by younger generations. Older people say, ‘that’s not a real word,'" said Lee.
Charged with creating their own words by compounding existing ones, looking at other languages, and combining two or three words into one, Lewis got to work.
To create his word, Lewis thought about articles he read regarding the health of the world's oceans.
His word? Seath.
“There is information about how the seas’ health is getting worse and worse,” Lewis explained. “So, I thought of a word for it – ‘seath.’ I used “sea” and the last part of ‘health.’”
“I’m hoping that someday Blake’s word is used by scientists,” Lee said.
She suggested the “seath scale for ocean health” would be a good way for the word to be used. In the submission to The New York Times, Lewis suggested this sentence:
“Horrible pollution is decreasing our world seath.”
Lewis wasn't the only one to invent a new word in the class. While the others didn't make it to the New York Times, they're still fun to read!
Some of those words include:
- CollyDrop: a person who drops out of college. – Parker Burns, grade 6
- Sheltooz: a house with a lot of pets and a crazy dynamic. – Storm Berard, grade 7
- Arreltion: when you find something (a book, movie, TV show or song) that puts the emotions you have been feeling into words and makes you feel seen and understood. – Rowan Hodgkins, grade 7
- Knucklepluckle: someone who picks at their fingers, cuticles or nails. – Lucy Powers, grade 7
- Jad: when you feel happy for someone because they got a good opportunity, but also sad because they will be leaving to seize the new opportunity. – Soumil Jain, grade 7
- Snickely: the act of sneezing uncontrollably. – Jacob Brown, grade 6
- Crish or crished: what happens when you drop a glass item and it breaks into many pieces. – Mason Pitkin, grade 6
- Exquizamble or exquizambled: to make someone think they look better than they actually do, or to act as if you look better than you actually do. – Livia Castle, grade 7
Jennifer Glatz is a digital content producer at FOX61 News. She can be reached at jglatz@fox61.com.
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