New Jersey is the land of made-up words

Is it any surprise that clever New Jerseyans are so adept at inventing words? After all we came up with Bennies and shoobies for those out of towners who invade our beaches. The Jersey slide was invented to describe the idiotic maneuver of exiting a highway in one fell swoop from the left lane

Sometimes made-up words become real. I found this article that points out words you probably never knew were dreamed up are now in legitimate use.

According to this, nerd was once not a word but rather an invention by Dr. Seuss.

The word nickname didn’t use to exist. It started out as eke-name, eke meaning addition. At some point it was misinterpreted as neke-name which then became nickname.

So the art of inventing a word often (not always) involves a portmanteau and the need to label something that never quite had a specific name before.

For instance, we asked our listeners what words they invented and they had some great ones.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski. Any opinions expressed are Jeff Deminski's own.