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And me! Now this is interesting: Cromulent first appeared in the February 18, 1996 episode of The Simpsons called "Lisa the Iconoclast," in what could be consi
by ezequiel-garzon 7y ago
And me! Now this is interesting:
Cromulent first appeared in the February 18, 1996 episode of The Simpsons called "Lisa the Iconoclast," in what could be considered a throw-away line given during the opening credits. The schoolchildren of Springfield are watching a film about the founding father of Springfield, Jebediah Springfield. The film ends with Jebediah intoning, “A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man.” One teacher at the back of the room leans over to another and says that she’d never heard the word embiggen before she moved to Springfield. “I don't know why,” the other teacher replies. “It's a perfectly cromulent word.”
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/what-does-cromulent-mean https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/what-does-crom...
- evil-olive 7y agoIt's one of my favorite Simpsons quotes. Wonderful little bit of linguistic hackery. They make up one word, embiggen, and just from the obvious root word of "big" it's clear what it means. Doubly so when taken in context, "A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man." Then they make up a second word, cromulent, and the meaning can be entirely inferred from context. Embiggen is a perfectly cromulent word. Acceptable, adequate, maybe a bit unorthodox but "good enough".
- tootie 7y agoAnd it's a pretty useful word. It's somewhere between "acceptable" and "plausible". It can kind of just mean whatever you need with a slight air of "I don't really know what I'm talking about, but don't worry it'll be fine."
- thaumasiotes 7y ago> they make up a second word, cromulent, and the meaning can be entirely inferred from context. There's nothing unusual about this. That's how people learn the meaning of every word. You're born knowing zero words; there's no alternative.