AUTHORISM, noun:a word, phrase or name created by an author, which passes into common usage.

USAGE:The works of Shakespeare include hundreds of authorisms, including words now commonly used but unheard before his time, like bump, hurry, and critical.

Authorism is actually a neologism, a new word coinage. It was invented or at least first used in this sense -- by the language scholar Paul Dickson for the express purpose of giving a name to his book on words invented by authors, Authorism: Words Wrought by Writers, published in 2014 on the occasion of William Shakespeares 450th birthday. (The word had been used in the past to relate to the state of being a writer, as when Horace Walpole, in the late 18th century, discussed a writer too satisfied with his authorism.)

Shakespeare was the uncrowned king of authorisms. His written vocabulary, Dickson tells us, consisted of 17,245 words, many of which he simply made up for his plays. These included terms that are so essential to our everyday conversation -- like bump, road, hurry, critical and bedazzled that one wonders how English coped without them before Shakespeare dreamt them up. Scholars have tripped over each other in the effort to count Shakespeares authorisms: some put the total at 500, others come up with the extraordinary number of 1,700. Aside from individual words, Shakespeares authorisms include famous phrases that have come into common use since his day, like brave new world, alls well that ends well, setting your teeth on edge, and being cruel only to be kind. No wonder George Bernard Shaw created an authorism to describe excessive worship of Shakespeare: bardolatry.

If Shakespeare coined the most authorisms, the poet John Milton offers the most competition, with this tally clocking in at 630 new words, including such familiar words and phrases as earth-shaking, lovelorn, fragrance, by hook or crook, and pandemonium. Mind you, not everything Milton came up with stood the test of time, or that of necessity: few later generations found much use for many of Miltons authorisms such as ensanguined, emblazonry and horrent!

The early litterateurs had the opportunity to establish themselves in a language that was still growing. Geoffrey Chaucer, Ben Jonson, John Donne, and Sir Thomas Moore also are credited with several authorisms each. Chaucer gave the English such essentials as bagpipe and universe, while Moore contributed anticipate and fact. Ben Johnson is said to have invented 558 words, John Donne 342. English grew beautifully in their care.

Later writers had to contend with the fact that so many words had already been invented that there was less need for neologisms. Still, Charles Dickens came up with many original terms and phrases, gleaned, it is suggested, from expressions he had heard around the poorer quarters and criminal classes of London. Mark Twain, Dickson tells us, didnt take credit for any authorisms at all, but did claim that he popularized the language of the Mississippi River and words derived from the Gold Rushes of Nevada and California (for example, hardpan, strike it rich and bonanza). It is said that Twains talent for creative usage gave new meanings to existing words -- like hard-boiled, which he is credited for turning into a synonym for tough.

By the 20th century one would imagine the scope for totally new authorisms declined. The popular American writer Sinclair Lewis tried hard to create authorisms that might stick, but none of his invented words -- from Kiplingo for Rudyards bombastic prose to teetotalitarian for advocates of Prohibition to philanthrobber for a robber baron who dabbled in philanthropypassed into popular usage, let alone endured. George Orwells 1984 (a date derived from reversing the last two digits of the year it was written, 1948) takes the prize, though, for imparting chilling new meanings to commonly-used words and combining some ordinary words into sinister new phrases. These ranged from Big Brother as a term to describe a totalitarian dictator, to the more specific doublethink and newspeak which anticipate the post-truth and fake news of our times.

First Published:Oct 25, 2019 19:36 IST

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Shashi Tharoors Word Of The Week: Authorism - Hindustan Times