Coining words for fun and profit

New York Times

A copywriter is charged with the arduous task of arranging our relatively small shared vocabulary in new ways so that the words sound fresh, command attention and compel the reader to act. Sometimes, though, we get to play around with the 26 letters, themselves, the building blocks of communication.  We get to make up words. Lewis Carroll is perhaps the most famous practitioner of this art (read it out loud so your co-workers can hear you):

JABBERWOCKY

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought –
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought

And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! and through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Of course, Carroll wasn’t trying to sell anything.

The closest I every came to Jabberwocky in advertising was a radio spot I wrote forty-eleven years ago for a shopping center that featured a lot of upscale stores. I simply strung the store names together in a wild adventure story, and to do that, I took great liberty with some of them, turning them into verbs or even odd creatures.  Looking back, I’m not sure how I got away with that.

Most of the time, words coined in advertising are combinations of existing words or parts of words, so that the meanings are still understood.  Many company names are created this way. I have used the technique to help name companies, products and services.  But it is not easy to find a combination anymore that isn’t already being used.

Not too long ago, I wrote some materials for one of International Paper’s brands, Carolina.  The client wanted to exalt the paper’s versatility and utility to graphic designers, who take very seriously the choice of paper on which their work will appear, and to tap into the designer’s creative spirit and sense of personal style.  Working in conjunction with ODEN, a frumious, vorpal, and infinitely talented design and marketing firm in Memphis, I came up with a new paper attribute:

YOUTILITY

It’s a fun, personal, customer-focused word to describe a paper that’s as versatile and expressive as the designer, an extension of his imagination, style, and so on.  (The girl’s not half bad, either). Was it original?  If you mean, did we come up with it on our own, then, yes.  If you mean, were we the first to come up with the combination, then, probably not.

Regardless, it was–and still is–a fresh approach in the paper industry squarely focused on the target’s need for versatility and maximum artistic expression.  And, of course, we weren’t naming a company, just establishing and defining a unique, differentiating product attribute. What other paper has youtility? In this, Carolina stands alone.

Snickers candy is doing something similar right now. They are using attributes of the candy bar to create new words that describe the taste and experience of eating a Snickers. They call their language “Snacklish.” Their website Snickers.com links you to their Facebook page where they teach you Snacklish. Words like nutliegence and chewconomy. Most of the words don’t do anything for me, although nougativity is a great one.

The use of Facebook is interesting and a good example of how marketing efforts are starting to include social media. Snickers has almost 40,000 Facebook fans, by the way. People with bad teeth, I suspect.

Wikipedia says the snack was named after the Mars family’s favorite horse. But I’m not so sure. Remember the word in the much older Jabberwocky: snicker-snack? Coincidence?  Perhaps.  But it just goes to show you how hard it is to come up with anything new.