10 Words You Didn’t Know Came from Literature

Etymology is fascinating because the English language is made up of so many different elements. We have words from Latin origins, a bit of French and some German thrown in, but we also have another category of words, and that’s those that are completely made up and enter the language via popular culture.

Many of these are words from literature, and so I’ve picked out my favourite ten every day words and phrases from literature to share with you.

J. R. R Tolkien (1937)

In The Hobbit, tween describes a Hobbit aged between the ages of 20 and 30.

William Gibson (1984)

Cyberspace was first used in Neuromancer, to describe the space in which communication between computers occur.

William Shakespeare (1590)

In The Taming of the Shrew, Shakespeare used eyesore to describe something offensive to the eye.

Norman Mailer (1973)

Factoid was first used in Marilyn to describe a piece of information that is accepted as fact although not true.

Dr. Seuss (1950)

In If I Ran the Zoo, nerd is used to describe a foolish person who is boringly studious.

John Le Carre (1974)

In Tinker Tailor Solder Spy, Le Carre uses honeytrap to label a ploy in which an attractive person lures another into revealing information.

Sir Walter Scott (1820)

Sir Walter Scott used freelance in Ivanhoe to describe a mercenary knight with no allegiance, who offers his services in exchange for money.

Stephen King (1983)

Pie Hole, to describe a mouth was used for the first time in print in 1983, in King’s Christine.

Karel Capek Rossum (1920)

In Rossum’s Universal Robots, Rossum coined robot from the Czech word robotnik, meaning slave or worker.

Layamon (1190-1215)

In Brut, Layamon used unfriend to describe one who is not a friend, long before Facebook started using it.

These are just a handful of English words that started out life in fiction. Each real definition is taken from the Oxford English, and each exists in English today simply thanks to the imagination of some of our favourite authors.