Embiggen (v.) Cromulent (a.) - The Simpsons have changed our language

Embiggen

Verb
To make larger.

Cromulent

Adjective
Staggeringly adequate and suitable.

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History & Etymology

Both of these words are neologisms, words that were created recently. In the case of embiggen and cromulent they both were introduced to the public on February 18, 1996 on a episode of the Simpsons. The episode was titled “Lisa The Iconoclast” and in one scene all of the students are gathered in the gymnasium watching an educational film about the history of Springfield.

[Simpsons clip]

The show runners had asked the writers to invent words that sounded like they were real but were completely made up, and embiggen and cromulent were the results.

As it turns out they only half succeeded in their goal of creating two new words. Embiggen had already been used once in 1884 in a British publication. This really isn’t that surprising. They may not have realized it but when they were creating embiggen they were following well established rule in the english language. You probably know these rules instinctively yourself.

It's a simple matter of adding a prefix and a suffix.

The prefix em-, a variant of the en- prefix when it comes before P or a B, makes the word it's attached to into a verb. And the suffix -en which when attached to a verb denotes is happening in the present or immediacy. Using..