Appendix:Fanciful 19th century American coinages
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During the early-mid 19th century United States, roughly the Jacksonian Era from the late 1820s through mid-century, particularly the 1830s, many fanciful words were coined, often as pseudo-Latinate terms. Some never achieved widespread use or fell out of use, but a small number remain in current use, typically as informal, jocular terms.
Many of these terms are recorded in Dictionary of Americanisms, by John Russell Bartlett, starting with the first edition (1848).
Words[edit]
- absquatulate
- bloviate
- blustrification (obsolete)
- confusticate
- conniption (probably)
- discombobulate
- dumfungled (obsolete)[1]
- goshbustified (obsolete)
- hornswoggle
- oll korrect
- sockdolager, sockdologer
- skedaddle
References[edit]
- ^ Read, p. 144, “dumfungled”, cites Boston Morning Post, 13 Mar. 1838, p. 2, col. 3, which in turn refers to the New Orleans Bee.
- 14 American English Abroad, Richard W. Bailey, 14.1 Introduction, pp. 456–458, in The Cambridge History of the English Language, Volume 6, 1992
- “Absquatulate”, World Wide Words, Michael Quinion, 3 Aug. 2002.
- Allen Walker Read, Milestones in the History of English In America, Publications of the American Dialect Society (PADS), volume 86, (2002), American Dialect Society, →ISBN, around p. 143–