WORDS INVENTED BY JAMES JOYCE
Bawways
Crookedly; sideways
Botch-up
Botch has been variously used in English since the 16th century to mean “to cobble together,” “to repair hastily,” or “to make a mess of something,” but Joyce reworked it into a noun, botch-up, in Ulysses to refer to “botch-up of a concert” — namely, a total mess.
Chiseller
Joyce used chiseller as a nickname for a young child in Ulysses, although it’s possible the word was already been in use in Irish slang before he before he put it down in print in 1922. Either way, it likely comes from the colloquial use of chisel to mean “to fleece money from someone.”
Dreck
Rubbish, worthless debris, a Yiddishism that the OED lists as having been introduced by Joyce in Ulysses, “Farewell. Fare thee well. Dreck!” This was probably in wide use long before Joyce but there is no earlier example in the context of written English.
Impotentizing
In a 1920 letter, Joyce coined a word perfect for our Viagra-centric age: “Moly could also be absinthe the cerebral impotentising (!!) drink of chastity.” In fact, I’m pretty sure the medical term for all bonerfying drugs is un-impotentizers.
Interindividual
Taking place between individuals
Klikkaklakkaklaskaklopatzklatschabattacreepycrottygraddaghsemmih-
sammihnouithappluddyappladdypkonpkot
Another 100-letter creation from Finnegans Wake. This one represents the sound of crashing glass.
Lukkedoerendunandurraskewdylooshoofermoyportertooryzooysphalnabortan-
sporthaokansakroidverjkapakkapuk
Used to represent the sound of door being slammed shut.
Massproduct
A mass-produced item
Monoideal
As a psychological term, monoideism — referring to a single mental fixation — was first introduced in the mid 1800s. It was probably the inspiration for Joyce’s coinage monoideal, explained by the OED as describing something “expressing or conveying only one idea.”
Monomyth
Monomyth, a word that Joyce coined, is “a cyclical journey or quest undertaken by a mythical hero,” and today is most famously applied to Joseph Campbell’s concept in his writings about heroes, stories, and myth.
“At the carryfour with awlus plawshus, their happy-ass cloudious! And then and too the trivials! And their bivouac! And his monomyth! Ah ho! Say no more about it! I’m sorry! I saw. I’m sorry! I’m sorry to say I saw!”
– James Joyce, Finnegans Wake
Mrkgnao
Another of Joyce’s fantastic onomatopoeias, mrkgnao is his version of “meow,” used several times (and with several different spellings) in Ulysses: “Mrkgnao! the cat said loudly. She blinked up out of her avid shameclosing eyes, mewing plaintively and long, showing him her milkwhite teeth.”
Mumchanciness
This obscure term is a variation of another rarity—mumchanceness—which had more to do with being mum than taking a chance when it appeared in a 1910 novel by Anthony Hope: “Perhaps his very mum-chanceness was his saving. Glib protestations would have smacked too strongly of the principal to commend the agent.” Joyce added a single syllable and considerable charm when he used it in a 1920 letter: “I am much inconvenienced by their cursed mumchanciness.” In other words, “By the ravens of Odin, why don’t they speak up?”
Obstropolos
Based on obstropolous, an old dialect variation of obstreperous meaning “disorderly” or “quarrelsome,” obstropolos is Joyce’s word for an irritable person’s downturned mouth.
Oirasesheorebukujibun!
Pandybat
A bat used to hit schoolchildren on the palm of the hand as a punishment.
Peloothered
If you’re peloothered then you’re very, very drunk. Joyce used this in Dubliners, his acclaimed collection of short stories, and was probably inspired by its early nineteenth century equivalent blootered.
Pelurious
Meaning furry or hairy, pelurious is perfect for those times when writing hirsute just won’t do. Despite their tiny frames, papillons are quite pelurious.
Plopslop
This word has to do with sounds produced by the smacking of the lips, and I can imagine the ever-creative Joyce licking his own lips when using this word in a neologism-heavy passage from Ulysses: “Florry whispers to her. Whispering lovewords murmur liplapping loudly, poppysmic plopslop.” Plopslop is another great word reminiscent of slipslop, which can mean a drippy, sappy form of malarkey.
Poppysmic
The adjective poppysmic describes the smacking sound of a person’s lips. Joyce coined it in Ulysses, in perhaps one of his most characteristic sentences: “Florry whispers to her. Whispering lovewords murmur liplapping loudly, poppysmic plopslop.”
Pornosophical
The OED defines this Joyce-ism as “of or relating to the philosophy of the brothel,” but it’s ready for any boom-chicka-wah-wah-related meaning today. If the amusing @KimKierkegaard Twitter account—which mashes Søren Kierkegaard’s philosophy with Kim Kardashian’s inanity—discussed KK’s sex tape, that would be truly pornosophical.
Quark
Quarks are subatomic particles considered one of the building blocks of all matter. They were discovered in the 1960s by the US physicist Murray Gell-Mann, who originally called them quorks until he came across a bizarre line in Joyce’ Finnegan’s Wake: “Three quarks for Muster Mark!” Noting that quarks can cluster together in threes to form other subatomic particles called baryons, Gell-Mann changed the name from quork to quark and credited Joyce with the name.
Quoiquoiquoiquoiquoiquoiquoiq!
The choice is made to surrender, but not to an opponent. Instead, arms are laid before the great mother, embodied famously in the person of Anna Livia Plurabelle: the waters of Anna Liffey, which bring nourishment to the city of Dublin while simultaneously carrying its filth out to sea. “Quoiquoiquoiquoiquoiquoiquoiq!” then, is the onomatopoetic resolution to this conflict—something between baptism and drowning.
Ringroundabout
Used in Ulysses to mean “to completely surround something”.
Ripripple
Reduplication might be the most fun way to make a word, as seen in terms like jibber-jabber, hocus-pocus, and choo-choo. Joyce went to the reduplication well for this word, which refers to something flowing like rippling water. Thanks to the repetition, it’s as if the word itself is riprippling.
Rrrwwwkkkrr!
Sausage
Joyce didn’t coin the word sausage of course, but he did transform it into a verb, meaning, in the words of the OED, “to subject a person or thing to treatment reminiscent of the manufacture or shape of a sausage.”
Scribbledehobble
Scribbledehobble was the name Joyce gave to one of his notebooks in which he jotted down names, words, ideas, turns of phrase and anecdotes. The word has made its way into a handful of English dictionaries, likewise as the name of a rough workbook or jotter, or as a nickname for hurried, scribbled handwriting.
Skeeze
Joyce used this term for peering or leering twice in Ulysses: when he described characters “skeezing round the door” and “always skeezing at those brazenfaced things on the bicycles with their skirts blowing up to their navels.” There does seem to be a relationship to the contemporary, slangy sense of skeeze as a harlot, which doesn’t pop up until 1989 in the lines of another poet, Sir Mix-A-Lot.
Smellsip
When Joyce wrote, “She smilesmirked supercilious” in Ulysses, he coined a perfect term for our smug age, when every facial expression, word, and emoji comes with an implied eye roll. This term is similar to another Joycism: smellsip. In Joyce’s age and now, the most reliable way to make a new word is by gluing two old words together.
Smilesmirk
A cross between a genuine smile and a disdainful smirk? That’s a smilesmirk.
Sparrow Fart
A person or thing of no consequence. Joyce wrote about Penelope in Ulysses, episode 18: “Miss This Miss That Miss the other lot of sparrowfarts skitting around talking about politics they know as much about as my backside.”
Suine
A nonce word for piglike, created for Ulysses: “The suine scions of the house of Lambert.
Suppositous
Assumed
Tattarrattat
Joyce’s version of rat-a-tat, the sound of someone knocking on the door, often makes its way onto lists of palindromes — and is usually claimed to be the longest single-word palindrome ever used in English literature.
Umbershoot
Joyce’s version of bumbershoot — an old name for an umbrella.
Washywatchywataywatashy!
Weenybeenyveenyteeny
Weggebobble
This humorous alteration of vegetable is reminiscent of other respellings of words for the sake of humor, like erhmagerd or Homer Simpson’s Jebus.
Whenceness
Someone or something’s whenceness is its birthplace or source point, the place from which it arises and develops.
Yogibogeybox
Joyce coined yogibogeybox in Ulysses to describe all of the equipment and paraphernalia that a spiritualist carries around with them.
Finnegans Wake is punctuated by ten thunderclaps, which occur at moments of crisis in the text. “A situation is presented, developed, and subjected to increasing stress until, with the thunder, a collapse, and suddenly a complementary situation that was latent in the first is seen to be in place,” writes scholar Eric McLuhan.
First thunderclap:
bababadalgharaghtakamminaronnonnbronntonnerronnuonnthunn-
trobarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurknuk
(This 100-letter monster appears on the first page to represent the sound of the thunderclap that accompanied the fall of Adam and Eve. It’s at least partly comprised of different words for thunder in several world languages, including French (tonnerre), Italian (tuono), Ancient Greek (bronte) and Japanese (kaminari))
Second:
Perkodhuskurunbarggruauyagokgorlayorgromgremmitghundhurthru-
mathunaradidillifaititillibumullunukkunun
Third:
klikkaklakkaklaskaklopatzklatschabattacreppycrottygraddaghsemmih-
sammihnouithappluddyappladdypkonpkot
Fourth:
Bladyughfoulmoecklenburgwhurawhorascortastrumpapornanennykock-
sapastippatappatupperstrippuckputtanach
Fifth:
Thingcrooklyexineverypasturesixdixlikencehimaroundhersthemagger-
bykinkinkankanwithdownmindlookingated
Sixth:
Lukkedoerendunandurraskewdylooshoofermoyportertooryzooysphalna-
bortansporthaokansakroidverjkapakkapuk
Seventh:
Bothallchoractorschumminaroundgansumuminarumdrumstrumtrumina-
humptadumpwaultopoofoolooderamaunsturnup
Eighth:
Pappappapparrassannuaragheallachnatullaghmonganmacmacmacwhack-
falltherdebblenonthedubblandaddydoodled
Ninth:
husstenhasstencaffincoffintussemtossemdamandamnacosaghcusaghhobix-
hatouxpeswchbechoscashlcarcarcaract
Tenth:
Ullhodturdenweirmudgaardgringnirurdrmolnirfenrirlukkilokkibaugiman-
dodrrerinsurtkrinmgernrackinarockar
Like everything in Joyce, the claps’ meaning is open to question, but they’re not arbitrary: Each of the first nine words contains exactly 100 letters, and the tenth has 101. Joyce, who called thunder “perfect language,” had apparently adjusted the spelling of the thunderclaps as the book took shape: McLuhan found tick marks in Joyce’s galley proofs, “the only evidence of actual letter-counting I have found in any of the manuscripts, typescripts, proofs, and galleys.”
(Eric McLuhan, The Role of Thunder in Finnegans Wake, 1997.)
Longest Words In Finnegan’s Wake
theLukkedoerendunandurraskewdylooshoofermoyportertooryzooysphalnabortansporthaokansakroidverjkapakkapuk (103)
BothallchoractorschumminaroundgansumuminarumdrumstrumtruminahumptadumpwaultoPoofoolooderamaunsturnup (100)
husstenhasstencaffincoffintussemtossemdamandamnacosaghcusaghhobixhatouxpeswchbechoscashlcarcarcaract (100)
kodhuskurunbarggruauyagokgorlayorgromgremmitghundhurthrumathunaradidillifaititillibumullunukkunun (97)
gaardgringnirurdrmolnirfenrirlukkilokkibaugimandodrrerinsurtkrinmgernrackinarockar (82)
Bladyughfoulmoecklenburgwhurawhorascortastrumpapornanennykocksapastippata (73)
likencehimaroundhersthemaggerbykinkinkankanwithdownmindlookingated (66)
aghmonganmacmacmacwhackfalltherdebblenonthedubblandaddydoodled (62)
kicksalittleseveralittleeatalittlewhinealittlekenalittle (56)
ronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk (55)
klikkaklakkaklaskaklopatzklatschabattacreppycrottyThe (53)
graddaghsemmihsammihnouithappluddyappladdypkonpkot (50)
lewdningbluebolteredallucktruckalltraumconductor (48)
you-know-what-I've-come-about-I-saw-your-act (44)
neverheedthemhorseluggarsandlisteltomine (40)
cellelleneteutoslavzendlatinsoundscript (39)
Lick-Pa-flai-hai-pa-Pa-li-si-lang-lang (38)
Ricqueracqbrimbillyjicqueyjocqjolicass (38)
dullakeykongsbyogblagroggerswagginline (38)
Ishallassoboundbewilsothoutoosezit (34)
Bride-and-Audeons-behind-Wardborg (33)
Polthergeistkotzdondherhoploits (31)
audible-visible-gnosible-edible (31)
Barth-the-Grete-by-theExchange (30)
Semperexcommunicambiambisumers (30)
gnomeosulphidosalamermauderman (30)
hierarchitectitiptitoploftical (30)
Quoiquoiquoiquoiquoiquoiquoiq (29)
mothers'-in-lawsfostermothers (29)
Luckluckluckluckluckluckluck (28)
Zovotrimaserovmeravmerouvian (28)
clipperclipperclipperclipper (28)
cryptoconchoidsiphonostomata (28)
kalospintheochromatokreening (28)
everytale-a-treat-in-itself (27)
ppatupperstrippuckputtanach (27)
Bilkilly-Belkelly-Balkally (26)
Bowery's-without-his-Walls (26)
circuminiuminluminatedhave (26)
priest-mayor-king-merchant (26)
rockbysuckerassousyoceanal (26)
Cumulonubulocirrhonimbant (26)
Harbourer-cum-Enheritance (25)
Milkinghoneybeaverbrooker (25)
Shusies-with-her-Soles-Up (25)
fairlygosmotherthemselves (25)
livingsmeansuniumgetherum (25)
morphomelosophopancreates (25)
quasicontribusodalitarian (25)
spotlightpleaseConcerning (25)
Kettle-Griffith-Moynihan (24)
Lorenz-by-the-Toolechest (24)
Sitterdag-Zindeh-Munaday (24)
Williamswoodsmenufactors (24)
four-flights-the-charmer (24)
parlourmenlaudabiliterof (24)
pundit-thenext-best-king (24)
Antonius-Burrus-Caseous (23)
Brighten-pon-the-Baltic (23)
Cockalooralooraloomenos (23)
Glenfinnisk-en-la-Valle (23)
Hispano-Cathayan-Euxine (23)
Huesofrichunfoldingmorn (23)
Washywatchywataywatashy (23)
WishwashwhoseOrmepierre (23)
cash-and-cash-can-again (23)
cococancancacacanotioun (23)
everywhencewithersoever (23)
greatgrandgosterfosters (23)
intentionsapplytomorrow (23)
maryamyriameliamurphies (23)
metropoliarchialisation (23)
panbpanungopovengreskey (23)
reflectionverbigracious (23)
rockerElletrouvetoutfor (23)
tweenydawn-of-all-works (23)
upturnpikepointandplace (23)
Auborne-to-Aubornewith (22)
Ballyaughacleeaghbally (22)
Blawlawnd-via-Brigstow (22)
Caherlehome-upon-Eskur (22)
Comeallyedimseldamsels (22)
Crippled-with-Children (22)
Drumcollogher-la-Belle (22)
Isitachapel-Asitalukin (22)
Killkelly-on-the-Flure (22)
Millecientotrigintadue (22)
Unfru-Chikda-Uru-Wukru (22)
agglaggagglomeratively (22)
anteproresurrectionism (22)
astoutsalliesemoutioun (22)
cheeriubicundenancesno (22)
cherrywickerkishabrack (22)
di'yesmellyspatterygut (22)
eggscumuddher-in-chaff (22)
fried-at-belief-stakes (22)
gooandfrighthisdualman (22)
helfalittlepelfalittle (22)
hurry-me-o'er-the-hazy (22)
postproneauntisquattor (22)
roranyellgreenlindigan (22)
soiedisante-chineknees (22)
visanvrerssascruaching (22)
Ceadurbar-atta-Cleath (21)
Gabbarnaur-Jaggarnath (21)
Granny-stream-Auborne (21)
I'm-free-Downin-Easia (21)
Nichtsnichtsundnichts (21)
Oirasesheorebukujibun (21)
Patripodium-am-Bummel (21)
Presbutt-in-the-North (21)
Propellopalombarouter (21)
allahthallacamellated (21)
andallthatsortofthing (21)
astroglodynamonologos (21)
blackinwhitepaddynger (21)
buckshotbackshattered (21)
dynasdescendancedonly (21)
escapemaster-in-chief (21)
everintermutuomergent (21)
freeflawformsparasama (21)
glitteraglatteraglutt (21)
hellpelhullpulthebell (21)
helpyourselftoastrool (21)
intermisunderstanding (21)
ivanmorinthorrorumble (21)
lightbreakfastbringer (21)
secretairslidingdraws (21)
selvischdischdienence (21)
solongopatomClummensy (21)
sowlofabishospastored (21)
stillandbutallyouknow (21)
teetootomtotalitarian (21)
thirtybobandninepenny (21)
whiteyoumightcallimbs (21)
Big-man-upin-the-Sky (20)
Councillors-om-Trent (20)
Embrassador-at-Large (20)
Epistlemadethemology (20)
Golforgilhisjurylegs (20)
Haveyoucaught-emerod (20)
Hungerford-on-Mudway (20)
Hunphydunphyville'll (20)
Interpenetrativeness (20)
Lifetenant-Groevener (20)
Madwakemiherculossed (20)
Marlborough-the-Less (20)
Pughglasspanelfitted (20)
SexeWeiman-Eitelnaky (20)
Tumblin-on-the-Leafy (20)
Vikramadityationists (20)
acknuckledownedgment (20)
aposterioprismically (20)
blepharospasmockical (20)
brancomongepadenopie (20)
coddlelecherskithers (20)
congrandyoulikethems (20)
goragorridgorballyed (20)
gryffygryffygryffsat (20)
muzzlenimiissilehims (20)
porterhousescutfrank (20)
shepullamealahmalong (20)
superexuberabundancy (20)
throughandthoroughly (20)
twennysixandsixpenny (20)
weenybeenyveenyteeny (20)
wheckfoolthenairyans (20)
Credits