Funnily enough…

During the holidays, Rian mentioned he was delaying his viewing of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” in favor of “The Terminator.” I told him that wasn’t very Christmassy. He said I was making up words.

Of course I was.

“Christmassy” is not something you’ll find in the dictionary (although my spell check doesn’t seem to have a problem with it). And though he pointed out “Christmassy” was a made-up word, he didn’t ask me what it meant. It was evident by the construction of the word I meant “The Terminator” did not have the qualities one would associate with Christmas (although he tried really, really hard to prove it does. He failed).

I’m okay with made-up words. I love playful language. “Christmassy” is, in fact, a word my sisters and I use often around the holidays when one of us is being particularly mean-spirited or negative (“You’re not being very CHRISTMASSY!”). It’s a funny word. It makes us laugh.

We never claimed it was a real word. But how much more fun is it to say, “You’re not being Christmassy” than it is to say, “You’re not exhibiting the kind of behavior one would associate with Christmas”? How much more descriptive is it to say “ginormous” than it is to say “both gigantic and enormous”? Isn’t the word “galumphing” better than “galloping triumphantly” (thank you, Lewis Carroll)? And if you are doing something in a funny way, I submit you are, in fact, doing it “funnily.”

This creative wordplay is different than using non-words such as “irregardless.” The distinction is in the intent of the speaker. In the first case, someone is constructing a new word using existing and familiar patterns to create a more descriptive visual. In the second case, the person just doesn’t know any better and should be smacked. When one introduces a new word, it’s best to come from a place of knowledge rather than a place of ignorance.

And now that I’ve reached the bottom of this post, I found this subject was discussed quite eloquently and thoroughly in the Boston Globe by Erin McKean. Instead of just deleting this post in disgust, I’ll just leave it up here as a hearty head nod in agreement.

Yeah. What Erin said.

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