Every so often, we make up words that aren’t words, but should be words.

Some of you may remember sniglets: words Rich Hall made up to describe things for which there were no words, like Snackmosphere: the pocket of air found inside snack and/or potato chip bags.

Douglas Adams, of Hitchhiker’s Guide fame, also came up with a book of them called, The Meaning of Liff. This featured words like Shoeburyness: “The vague uncomfortable feeling you get when sitting on a seat that is still warm from somebody else’s bottom.”

I thought of these because of a recent slip up when I accidentally slipped up and used the word embrasion: when a group of people accept an idea you want them to accept.

There’s also another use for articulation. When someone says something in a way that captures an idea you’ve been considering without the words to describe it to others, you’re having an articulation. (I used to think it was a revelation, but it’s not like that word at all…)