Made-up words in The Simpsons

Several memes (often neologisms) that started on The Simpsons television series have now become mainstream words or sayings. The most famous of which is Homer's saying: "D'oh!", which is referred to in scripts, as well as several episode names, as "annoyed grunt". D'oh is now listed in the Oxford English Dictionary. Other memes are:

Assalhorizontology

First coined by Dr. Nick Riviera, in the episode where Homer Simpson tries to gain weight to get on Workman's Compensation. While prescribing a diet consisting of a steady gorging process for Homer, he suggests that it be combined with "assalhorizontology". Broken down, the word seems to be a combination of ass and horizontal, meaning it is the art of sitting down.

Avoision

Coined by Kent Brockman in Bart the Fink during a news report. He claims that it is a real word and insists on saying it instead of "evasion".

B'oh

A variation of "D'oh" that a Homer Simpson look-alike says by mistake trying to imitate him in the episode Burns' Heir.

Blurst

A word made up by one of Mr Burn's thousand monkeys at a thousand typewriters, which causes Mr Burns to fold the piece of paper on which it was written in to a ball and to throw it at the monkey. Episode: "Last Exit to Springfield".

Boo-urns

What Smithers tells Mr. Burns in the episode "A Star Is Burns" that the audience is yelling at him after his movie is shown at the film festival instead of boo.

Oddly enough, the only person that was saying boo-urns was Hans Moleman.

Bort

Bort is a name which, in the series, appears to be very popular. The name first appears in the episode "Itchy & Scratchy Land", when, at a gift shop, Bart Simpson is unable to find a novelty license plate with his name, the nearest match being Bort. At that time, there happen to be two people named Bort in the store, and later in the episode it is revealed that the gift shop has run out of Bort license plates.

The word "BORT" appears in a later episode, in a clip from a campy 70s Radioactive Man movie. The word appears, in the fashion of the Batman series of this era, in an explosion bubble and accompanied by sound effects.

ZUFF! PAN!! SNUH! BORT! POOO! NEWT! MINT! ZAK!

(SNUH also appears earlier, as an acronym for Springfieldians for Nonviolence, Understanding, and Helping)

In the real world, bort is a term used in the diamond industry to refer to shards of gem-grade/quality diamonds. In the manufacturing and heavy industries, "bort" is used to describe dark, imperfectly formed/crystallized diamonds of varying levels of opacity. They are used as an industrial-grade abrasive.

Chester A. Arthritis

After being diagnosed with “Jebeditis” by Hollis Hurlbut, Lisa jokingly suggests “just when I was getting over my Chester A. Arthritis.” Hollis, not getting Lisa's joke replies, “did... you had arthritis?”

CompuGlobalHyperMegaNet

CompuGlobalHyperMegaNet was Homer's internet company.

Craptacular

Craptacular: A made up word combining the words "Crap" and "Spectacular" that Bart Simpson used to describe the supposedly defective christmas lights that Homer purchased in Season 9, Episode 10 of The Simpsons Miracle on Evergreen Terrace.

Crisatunity

Lisa declares that the Chinese use the same word for both 'crisis' and 'opportunity'. Homer agrees, "Yes, crisatunity!"

Cromulent

When schoolteacher Edna Krabappel hears the Springfield town motto "A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man," she sarcastically comments that she never heard embiggens before moving to Springfield. Another teacher, Miss Hoover, replies that "it's a perfectly cromulent word".

Later in the same episode, while talking about Homer's audition for the role of town crier, Principal Skinner states "He's embiggened that role with his 'cromulent' performance."

Based on the context in which Miss Hoover uses the word cromulent, we can interpret that it means "legitimate" or "appropriate." Lisa uses it later in that episode in a similar manner. Both embiggen and cromulent were quickly adopted and used by Simpsons fans. Cromulent has taken on an ironic meaning, to say that something is not at all legitimate and in fact spurious.

In the 2005 Xbox game Jade Empire, the player meets a man who uses made-up and mispronounced words. When the player confronts the man with this, the man claims that one of the words he used was "cromulent", an obvious reference to The Simpsons.

Dorkus Malorkus

Dorkus malorkus is a fictitious Latin phrase made up by Bart Simpson presumably based on the word dork. In the episode "Bart on the Road", Bart announces that he is going to the National Grammar Rodeo and his sister, Lisa, protests.

Lisa: It's not fair. I'm the best student in school, how come I never heard about this competition?

Bart: Maybe because you are, as we say in Latin, a "dorkus malorkus."

Lisa: That's not Latin. Mom, Bart's faking it.

Marge: Lisa, you've had your glory. Now it's Bart's turn.

Debigulator

A debigulator is a fictional device that has the power to shrink people down to a smaller size.

In the episode where Lisa creates her own mini universe out of a lost tooth, the miniature scientist used the debigulator to make Lisa small enough to rule their tiny society.

In the same episode, the scientist suggests that the debigulation can only be reversed by a rebigulator.

Dumbening

'Dumbening' is the process of becoming dumber. In the episode 'Lisa the Simpson', Lisa is writing in her diary after speaking to Grandpa about 'the Simpson Gene', which supposedly makes everyone in the Simpson family stupid.

"Dear log, can it be true? Does every Simpson go through a process of dumbening? Hey, that's not how you spell 'dumbening'. Wait a minute...'dumbening' isn't even a word!"

Embiggen

Jebediah Springfield says (on film) in "Lisa the Iconoclast": "A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man". From the context, Embiggen can be interpreted to mean "to improve and make nobler," or possibly simply "to make bigger." See #Cromulent.

They sing without flunjers, capdabblers and smendlers!

A number of words made up by Mr Burns, in the style of Dr Seuss's "The Grinch", when describing protesters among whom are Homer and Lisa, wanting their Dental Plan back. Episode: "Last Exit to Springfield".

Frinkahedron

In the Halloween episode "Treehouse of Horror VI", Professor Frink tries to explain Homer's disappearance into the third dimension. He explains by making a cube, which he later names a "Frinkahedron."

Homersexual

During a routine disciplinary visit to Principal Skinner's office, Bart must call Moe's Tavern looking for his father, Homer. But when Moe answers the phone, Bart preempts the original purpose of the call and substitutes one of his trademark prank-calls. Instead of asking for his father "Homer Simpson," Bart asks for "Homer-sexual." With the prank thus launched, Bart quickly hands the phone to the Principal, who is shocked and dismayed to hear Moe Szyslak's tirade.

Later, when Homer marks Skinner as a possible mate for Selma, an imaginary head-up display seen from his point of view (a spoof of The Terminator movies) identifies that Skinner may be a possible "homersexual" (sic).

Though not exactly the same, Homer proclaims it is time to "get Homererotic" when he is having himself photographed in suggestive poses for a gift portfolio for Marge.

Jebeditis

When Hollis Hurlbut, curator of the Springfield Historical Society, returns to Lisa with Johnny Cakes, she is acting strangely having just found “The Secret Confessions of Jebediah Springfield” hidden in Springfield's flute. Lisa attempts to disguise her behaviour as “just the excitement of studying Jebediah.” Apparently this excitement is a product of having contracted a serious case of “Jebeditis.”

Jebus

Homer's term for Jesus. It is first mentioned in the episode "Missionary: Impossible."

In another animated show, Family Guy, Jebus appears as a typo on page 375 in The Bible

Knowitallism

Knowitallism (also Know-it-all-ism) is a fictitious word made up by the faculty of Springfield Elementary School to describe Lisa Simpson's precocious personality. The students break into the school's vault and find their permanent records and when Lisa reads that her teachers have labelled her as suffering from "knowitallism", she exclaims, "That's not even a word!"

Kwyjibo

Kwyjibo (pronounced QUI-gee-bow) is a fictitious word made up by Bart Simpson during a game of Scrabble with his family. In the episode "Bart the Genius", Bart puts "Kwyjibo" on the board and scores upwards of 150 points (50 of those points having been obtained by using all his letters). When Homer Simpson asks Bart what a Kwyjibo is, Bart replies, "A big, dumb, balding North American ape. With no chin." Marge Simpson adds in, "…and a short temper". At this point, Homer chases Bart away, causing him to exclaim, "Uh oh! Kwyjibo on the loose!" Humorously enough, earlier in that same episode, Homer moans words to the effect of "How could anyone form a good word out of these letters?" His Scrabble letters spell OXIDIZE, and were arranged in that order. The word would be worth a minimum of 74 points, including 50 points for using all his letters.

Kwyjibo acquired some later notoriety as an alias used by the writer of the Melissa worm.

Kwyjibo was also adopted as the name of a relatively advanced and popular yo-yo string trick in 1999 by Taylor Whitley, the trick's creator. The trick is often misspelled as Kwijibo, possibly as a result of a webboard poster who went by that handle.

Lupper

When Bart and Lisa embarrass their parents while having brunch, Homer decides to leave and go to Moe's, stating he will see them at "lupper" (a portmanteau of lunch and supper).

It is worth noting that the character of Jughead Jones of Archie comics fame has been on record as using this word at least a decade prior to Homer's "coining". It also appeared in a Seinfeld episode where it was used by Jerry's short-time fiancee (who had identical mannerisms to Jerry himself) in a conversation spoofing Jerry's stand-up performances.

Posturologists

The name given by Ms Krabappel to the describe the scientists who designed the rather curved chairs in "The Boy Who Knew Too Much" (Episode 1F19). "Edna: Well, children, our new ultra-hard PostCherfect chairs have arrived. They've been designed by eminent posturologists to eliminate slouching by the year 3000.

Pull a Homer

"To succeed despite idiocy", or rather, to have great amounts of dumb luck. After Homer does so in the episode "Homer Defined", this phrase becomes a temporary fad in the Simpsonverse.

Redorkulated

In one episode a hypnotist turns Professor Frink into a suave ladies man. When the spell wears off Frink says, "Oh no, I've redorkulated." Literally, the word means, "to have become a dork again."

Sacrilicious

Homer's word for a waffle on the ceiling that he mistakes for God. A portmanteau of sacrilegious and delicious.

This word was first used in the title of an album by the Supersuckers, "The Sacrilicious Sounds of the Supersuckers," several years prior to the episode in which Homer uses it.

Saxamaphone

Homer's word for Lisa's favorite instrument.

He also seems to be unable to pronounce several other instruments. In the episode where Homer tells Lisa the story of how she got her sax, he suggests a few other potential instruments: oboe-ma-bo, vio-mo-lin and tuba-ma-ba. There is a chance this may be a form of Gibberish.

Scotchtoberfest

Scotchtoberfest is a fake Scottish festival which was featured in the episode "Bart's Girlfriend". It was invented by Principal Seymour Skinner to catch Bart Simpson red-handed in the act of perpetrating a prank, as is Bart's perennial wont. Groundskeeper Willy, the Scottish school janitor, plays the bagpipes whilst wearing a kilt. Bart lifts his kilt with helium balloons, and since Willy wears his kilt without underpants, at least one woman faints at the sight.

Since its appearance, some (it's pretty-much limited to groups of friends sharing the joke round somebody's house) Scots have made Scotchtoberfest into a real festival, held on the third Friday of every October. For most people who celebrate it, it is simply "a celebration of all things Scottish". It is a pun on the Bavarian Oktoberfest.

Screamapillar

The screamapillar is a fictional animal which resembles a large orange caterpillar that screams nearly all the time, even as it sleeps. It is sexually attracted to fire, and requires constant consolation and encouragement. Because it is an endangered species under the fictional "Reversal of Freedoms Act of 1994", allowing it to perish is a federal offense. Judging by the picture on the brochure relating to its care, the screamapillar can grow to colossal proportions. This fact suggests that the screamapillar is not, in fact, a true caterpillar. However, another episode has a cameo of a similarly-screaming butterfly, suggesting that the brochure may be exaggerated. In any case, its behavior makes survival an unlikely prospect.

Skittlebrau

Skittlebrau is a type of beverage that looks like beer with candy floating in it. It is implied that Homer imagined it by mixing Skittles and beer (brew in German is bräu) in "Bart Star". However, later episodes show Skittlebrau as an actual product. Another episode shows Homer asking Apu for some at the Kwik-E-Mart, only for Apu to tell him that it does not exist. It is assumed the combination derives from the known phrase Life is not all beer and skittles from E. Cobham Brewer.

This has been tried in the real world, here (http://global-opinions.com/viewtopic.php?t=31) among other places.

Smarch

In the Halloween episode "Treehouse of Horror VI", the thirteenth month is Smarch. Smarch was, according to Marge Simpson, just a misprinted word on a calendar. Homer, however, didn't realize this and cursed the "lousy Smarch weather."

During the same episode, Groundskeeper Willie was allowed to burn to death by the Springfield PTA on Smarch 13th at 1:00 p.m., the thirteenth hour of the thirteenth day of the thirteenth month.

Superliminal

A method of communication using grossly direct persuasion. The term was coined in an episode when a Navy recruiter shouted out a window telling recurring characters Lenny and Carl to join the Navy. They did. "Superliminal" is a play on words replacing "sub", a prefix meaning "under", in "subliminal" with the prefix "super" which means "above" or "beyond." Note: The word "Liminal" is a real word, meaning "barely perceptible" It is worth noting that the earliest known use of this word is in a Larry Niven short story written in the 1970s.

Tomacco

Main article: Tomacco

Tomacco is a fictional fruit that is half tomato and half tobacco. Tomacco is first created by Homer Simpson when he "plants a little bit of everything" (making sure to fertilize with stolen radioactive "goo") and ends up with a hybrid of tobacco and tomatoes. The result is a tomato that apparently has a tobacco center, and, although being described as tasting terrible by many characters, is also immediately and powerfully addictive. The creation is promptly labeled "Tomacco" by Homer and sold to unsuspecting passersby.

Tramompoline

Homer's word, used in excitement, for Trampoline.

Trapapoline

Another of Homer's words, used in excitement, for Trampoline.

Yvan Eht Nioj

Yvan Eht Nioj (pronounced ) is a catchy chorus from the hit song Drop Da Bomb by the Party Posse in the episode "New Kids on the Blecch". It is actually a subliminal message encouraging listeners to join the United States Navy, as the phrase "Yvan Eht Nioj" backwards is actually "Join the navy".

Drop Da Bomb lyrics:

Oh, say can you rock!

There's trouble in a far-off nation.

Time to get in love formation.

Your love is more deadly than Saddam,

And that's why I gotta drop da bomb!

Party Posse!

Yvan eht nioj,

Yvan eht nioj —

Eht nioj.

(cuts to Homer and Lisa)

<Homer>: "Yvan eht nioj! You gotta love that crazy chorus!"

<Lisa>: "What does it mean?"

<Homer>: "Ah it doesn't mean anything. It's like "Rama-Lama Ding Dong" or "Give Peace a Chance".

(goes back to song)

This party is happenin',

It's no mirage.

So sing it again.

Yvan eht nioj!