Authorisms: Words Wrought by Writers by Paul Dickson Read Free Book Online

article “Confessions of an Eth” in Parade magazine in reaction to the 1,076-page Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups.
    EUCATASTROPHE. Word coined by English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) in 1944 for a sudden or unexpected favorable turn of events, especially in a narrative, such as a surprise happy ending. Eucatastrophe was defined by Tolkien in his 1947 essay “On Fairy-Stories” as the “good catastrophe, the sudden joyous ‘turn’ . . . it is a sudden and miraculous grace . . . a fleeting glimpse of Joy.” He first wrote of the eucatastrophe in 1944 as “the sudden happy turn in a story which pierces you with a joy that brings tears.” In 1947 he expanded on the theme applying it to Christianity: “The Birth of Christ is the eucatastrophe of Man’s history. The Resurrection is the eucatastrophe of the story of the Incarnation.” 6
    EUGENICS. Coined in 1883 by Sir Francis Galton (1822–1911), British anthropologist and cousin of Charles Darwin, from a Greek word meaning “well born.” Galton perceived it as a moral philosophy to improve humanity by encouraging the ablest and healthiest people to have more children.
    EUTHANASIA. A gentle and easy death and by extension the act of purposely killing or helping someone die. It was first coined by Francis Bacon (1561–1626) in 1605 from Greek eu (good) and thanatos (death).
    EUTRAPELIA. Clean mirth, a jest without a jeer, laughter without scorn, wit without malice, a joke without offense to one’s neighbor. A word fashioned from the Greek by Anselm Kroll , a minister from La Crosse, Wisconsin. He tried valiantly to get others to adopt the concept in a crusade that pushed for the dawning of a new day of humor without barbs. “What a lovely world it will be when its clever folk cease to strive to be satirical or sarcastic, and resolve to be eutrapeleous.” 7
    EYESORE. William Shakespeare coined this word for something that is offensive to the eye. In The Taming of the Shrew , Baptista demanded, “Doff this habit, shame to your estate, an eyesore to our solemn festival!” The term was invoked with proper acknowledgment to its coiner in 2005 when plans were unveiled to build a massive metal shed in Stratford on Avon as a temporary home for the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. It was immediately dubbed the Rusty Shed. 8

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    FACTOID . Term created by Norman Mailer (1923-2007) in 1973 for a piece of information that becomes accepted as a fact, although it is not actually true; or an invented fact believed to be true because it appears in print. Mailer wrote in Marilyn: “Factoids . . . that is, facts which have no existence before appearing in a magazine or newspaper, creations which are not so much lies as a product to manipulate emotion in the Silent Majority.” *

     
    FAQ. Initialism for frequently asked questions , a term in common use on Internet home pages. Attributed to Eugene N. Miya , researcher at NASA, who is said to have coined the term in ca . 1983 documents circulated to Usenet groups on the history of the space program.
    FASHIONISTA. A person employed either in the creation or promotion of high fashion, by extension a devotee of the fashion industry. It can be used sardonically for someone obsessed by fashion. This word was created by writer Stephen Fried in his 1993 book Thing of Beauty: The Tragedy of Supermodel Gia, referring to a specific group of fashion insiders and devotees. The word is a play on Sandinista with the –ista suffix to imply “following.” In 1999 the word was added to the OED and it continued to appear everywhere along with copycat words ending in –ista. Then in April 2013, Fried published a seventeen-paragraph mea culpa in the Atlantic entitled, “I Apologize for Inventing the Word ‘Fashionista’ 20 Years Ago,” in which he said of his neologism: “Twenty years ago, I apparently changed language forever. I published a book that unleashed upon an