Words come from lots of different sources, and these sources change over time. Many sources came to exist because of events — for instance, when the Normans invaded England a thousand years ago it proved to be a source of countless new English words. Some sources are slower and have more to do with migration and mingling of cultures over long periods of time. Latin and Greek are sources of English words that are more like that. And then there are very specific sources; words that are coined and, for whatever reason, catch on widely enough to enter the language.
The source really doesn’t matter all that much really; the words can be equally cromulent. Oh, speaking of “cromulent” (which means sort of “truthy” in a linguistic way), it came into existence in 1996. Specifically, on February 18, in episode 144 of The Simpsons. “Cromulent”, which by now appears in dictionaries (well, some of them), has a unique origin story (for a word) because it was “ordered”; the writers were asked to come up with a word that sounded like a real word, and “cromulent” was the result. Actually they were asked to come up with TWO words, and both of them have entered the language.
The other word is “embiggen”, which is what happens, for example, when you double-click some images to zoom in. They embiggen. In The Simpsons, the town motto of Springfield was revealed to be “A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man.” Bart’s teacher Edna Krabappel says that she never heard the word “embiggen” before moving to Springfield, but Mr. Hoover (another teacher) says “I don’t see why; it’s a perfectly cromulent word.” Later on Homer himself is praised for his acting: “He’s embiggened that role with his cromulent performance.”
Of the two words, “embiggen” has been somewhat more successful; it’s been used in several scientific papers. Its origin story is slightly marred, though, because it was later discovered that the word was used (only that one time, apparently) in 1884.
So that’s the story, no go embiggen your linguistic horizons with more cromulent words!
