The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter - it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning. - Mark Twain
One thing R might tell his new friend is that when you can't summon the right word, you can make one up. In Twain's time, people like Lewis Carroll coined crazy terms, but years later people like Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein carried the practice over the top, which is the way kids like things these days.
Last week I was in the kitchen when R, sitting at the breakfast table, murmured something.
"What was that?" I asked.
"Flutuberences," he said.
"How do you pronounce that?"
"Fluh-TOO-ber-en-sez."
"Can you use it in a sentence?"
"The old hag had flutuberences all over her body."
3 comments:
Love it!!!!!!
That is one to remember and to remind in a few years! We were just watching old video footage and were reminded of "skaker", Lucas's made-up word from his littler days. It can be a noun, verb, or can just be summoned up when one has run out of real words.
Making words up can work for Scrabble too, as long as you can use it in a sentence, right? Although flutuberences has a few more than seven letters.
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