Newspeak

[Redlass]

1984 was first published 52 years ago today.

It introduced several new words into our vocabulary--including the phrase "Big Brother is watching you," groupthink, doublespeak, and others.

What other words or phrases can you think of that were coined by an author in a book that has made its way into popular culture?

[taurusmoon]

There's the ever popular Grok from Stranger in a Strange Land

I can grok that. Can you?

Sara

[MrsNormanMaine[$]]

Both 'chortle' and 'gallumph' from 'Jabberwocky' in 'Through the Looking Glass' by Lewis Carroll.

MNM

[Dani257]

Well, the name Wendy originated from Peter Pan.

[CurtisEdmonds]

Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People; "proactive", "win/win", etc.

[erik_kosberg]

Hundreds if not thousands from the Bible and Shakespeare.

What other words or phrases can you think of that were coined by an author in a book that has made its way into popular culture?

Cyberspace was coined by William Gibson in Neuromancer.

[bupkiss]

Originally posted by CurtisEdmonds
Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People; "proactive", "win/win", etc.

LOL, I always use those damn terms. I sound like I'm either a business student or a politician, eeek.

And, not really the same thing, but I am sure Roald Dahl introduced quite a few Britishisms to American kids (I still use the word "wonky" a lot, and I called TV the "telly" for a while after reading Matilda).

[pageclot[$]]

Dr. Henry Osmond invented the term psychedelic, but I think Aldous Huxley popularized it in his book The Doors of Perception, (which of course, was the source for a rock band name).

Hunter Thompson may have been the first to popularize the term "Fear and Loathing".

Tom Wolfe was the first to print with "The Right Stuff".

I'm not sure the last two count, as these guys didn't actually invent the words, just made them significant as phrases.

p

[Redlass]

Was "Catch-22" coined by Joseph Heller or did he borrow it from somewhere else?

[MrsNormanMaine[$]]

Joseph Heller coined it. He originally had another number in mind but he found 'Catch-22' more euphonius.

Douglas Coupland named 'Generation X' in the novel of the same name.

MNM

[kchowell]

I'm not certain that Coupland can take credit for the phrase Generation X, as Billy Idol was the lead singer of a punk band called Generation X back in the late seventies or early eighties. Which was well before Coupland published his novel. However, it was certainly Coupland's novel that made the phrase popular and gave it its currently accepted definition, even if he'd didn't coin it.

One of the things that I found interesting about Coupland and the phrase Generation X (or Gen X, if you prefer) is that Coupland seemed to intend the phrase to describe people born in the sixties (at least by the ages of the main characters of the novel), and the media more often uses it to describe people born in the seventies.

[kchowell]

Further nosing about reveals that the punk group Generation X took their name from a book entitled

Generation X: Here, in Their Own Words, is How They Really Feel About Drugs, Drink, God, Sex, Class, Color and Kicks

by Charles Hamlett and Jane Deverson.

Published in 1964, here are some details about the book (which is currently available at several online used book sources, if you're interested):

The cover asks, "What's behind the rebellious anger of Britain's untamed youth?" From the foreword: Our aim was to get young people talking. We asked them to tell us about their hates and hopes and fears. Young people talking about marriage, politics, jazz, travel, drink, drugs, religion, raves, pot, sex, violence, gangs, scandals, idols, homosexuality, responsibility, pop culture, the Beatles and anything else they wanted to talk about."

So credit for Generation X can probably go to Hamlett or Deverson. But it could have been around prior to that, I suppose.