Made up word project

An award-winning illustrator has launched a project which highlights the use of a special lexicon between family members and friends.

Whether it is an inside joke or a ridiculous word that stuck, Rinee Shah, from San Francisco, told Mashable she has already received around 125 submissions in just one week.

Shah organised the project to explore the vernacular phenomenon. Fans sent in examples of made-up words they use, which she illustrates according to the user’s definition.

She told Mashable: «Another fun trend I’ve noticed is that almost 5% of the submissions have been a made up word for remote control. For example, monkeychoke, dobah, channel hopper, schmitzick and kabonger.»

Speaking to Buzzfeed, she said the project began as she was watching an old episode of The West Wing.

Shah said: «A few years ago, I did an illustration project called Seinfood, and my favourite part about it was that people were sharing it with their friends and family because of a shared nostalgia from watching the show together.

She added: «I was recently watching an old episode of The West Wing, and one of the characters said a strange word, and then realised that it was probably just a word his mother made up. It occurred to me that that probably happens to people all the time.»

The whole project can be seen at Madeupwordsproject.com.

Yonies

Illustrator Rinee Shah created The Made Up Words Project with the goal of cataloging all the silly words and phrases shared between friends and family. Shah then creates an amusing and colorful image to go along with the word. Those interested are encouraged to submit their own words to the project.

The Quincy

Gotchies

Frubie

images via Rinee Shah

submitted via Laughing Squid Tips

Related Posts

The Made-Up Words Project, a visual dictionary of made-up words, started as a theory. Did other people have made-up words that they grew up using with friends and family? What came next was a crowdsourced website with submissions from all over the world and more press than I could imagine -from a Buzzfeed listicle to tweets from dictionary.com.

The project was published into a book by Knock Knock and is available on Amazon.

Fast Company

Mashable 

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The Made Up Words Project
February 10, 2014 10:21 AM   Subscribe

At least a couple of these are of slavic origin (Gotchies = Ґачі, Dupa = Дупа) so not really made up.
posted by Kabanos at 10:35 AM on February 10, 2014 [4 favorites]

Thirding «gotchies» as not made up. It’s a regional thing here in Western PA.
posted by octothorpe at 10:36 AM on February 10, 2014

This fibula is very flargmot, thanks all you drebnars!
posted by JHarris at 10:42 AM on February 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

(Each of those is a made-up word that’s been in personal currency at some time or other. «Fibula» is a random bit of nonsense spoken by a young Seaman, «drebnar» is the improvised name for the alien insect steeds in The Asylum’s version of A Princess Of Mars, as depicted in the imagined Martian TV show «My Little Drebnar,» and flargmot I’m not sure where it came from. It’s very gormpik.)
posted by JHarris at 10:45 AM on February 10, 2014

My kids have loads of them. One of my favorites is «vuticle», which started as a mispronunciation of «vehicle», but has remained in their vocabulary to refer specifically to vehicles they make out of legos, knex, etc.
posted by gimli at 10:51 AM on February 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

I like this. I also like, for different but of course similar reasons, my friend’s project Words That Aren’t.
posted by knile at 10:58 AM on February 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

Yoni has always meant ladyparts in my world, which makes the yonies=good vibes one my favorite. I wonder if someone in their world has an inner Beavis and Butthead moment when they hear «Send Timmy’s dad good yonies while he’s in the hospital!»
posted by eggkeeper at 11:10 AM on February 10, 2014 [2 favorites]

This gem from Curious George’s ABCs deserves a definition: blimlimlim.
posted by dr_dank at 11:58 AM on February 10, 2014

A large group of my friends have used the word boophus [‘bu.fəs] since high school. It’s such a part of my regular lexicon I often completely forget it isn’t a real word. Of course, on the other hand, it is a real word, isn’t it?
posted by Lutoslawski at 12:12 PM on February 10, 2014

We use the verb «to skink» in our house to mean messing around, but specifically in water. As in, many a time when I was doing the dishes as a kid and taking forever or messing around with the bubbles, my Mum would come in and say «Stop skinking and hurry up.» She said her Mum used it and I always thought it was just a rural Irish word, but I’ve asked loads of people over the years and no one else has ever heard of it, so I’m assuming it was a made-up family word. It’s fun to say so I’m keeping it. (Skinking itself is also fun.)
posted by billiebee at 12:15 PM on February 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

There was an illustrated joke book or series back in the 80s that featured made-up words. I’ll have to go search for it; it was one of those little books they would stick at the counter of Waldenbooks for impulse buyers. They were great on road trips.
posted by Brocktoon at 12:57 PM on February 10, 2014

eggkeeper, I had exactly the same reaction to the yonis. I’m guessing the illustrator didn’t know about it, though.
posted by dlugoczaj at 1:03 PM on February 10, 2014

» puet»
as in » I would puet.»
My daughter and I have often told each other that we would, » pick you everytime». When we began texting we came up with this handy acronym. It is pronounced » poo-ay» ( very Frenchy )….:)
posted by haikuku at 1:30 PM on February 10, 2014

In my high school, some friends of mine started a trend of calling that mullet hair style that was in vogue in the early 90s the «ayshee-brayshee» (a sort of mangled, mispronunciation of «Achy Breaky,» as in «Don’t break my heart, my achy breaky heart»). It caught on a bit beyond our immediate social circle in high school and I still find myself using it at home sometimes with my wife, who also uses it occasionally. Wonder if that would count…
posted by saulgoodman at 2:10 PM on February 10, 2014

I know someone who calls the TV remote the «fliffer-floffer».
posted by Prince Lazy I at 2:21 PM on February 10, 2014 [2 favorites]

No the remote is definitely the «memote».
posted by Brocktoon at 3:36 PM on February 10, 2014

In my house, the remote is usually called «Where the *&%$ is that thing??»
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:56 PM on February 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

Squamous, meaning scaly, is of particular entertainment to Lovecraft fans, since it has a reputation as being one of his words, like Cyclopean, and gibbous. («They danced horribly when the moon was gibbous,» from «The Doom That Came To Sarnath.»)
posted by JHarris at 12:33 AM on February 11, 2014

My husband is a native Spanish speaker, and when I was learning Spanish from him years ago I picked up a lot of words that I thought were real, but subsequently learned were ones he had made up. It has taken me a long time to weed them out of my vocabulary, as they are not so easily unlearned. «Fli-fli» for a spray bottle and «núgales» for hugs are two that spring to mind.
posted by lollymccatburglar at 1:41 PM on February 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

I love «fli-fli»—good onomatopoeia. (Similarly, my family picked up «fffft»—whipped cream in a can—from a friend and her family.)
posted by dlugoczaj at 1:48 PM on February 11, 2014

Dlugoczaj, when I was growing up, we called that a doot-da-doo.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 9:01 PM on February 11, 2014 [1 favorite]

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