The best nonsense word generator

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Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/02/20/the-best-nonsense-word-generat.html

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A truly excially, doubiniating find. Most frayful unquions to you, good sir.

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Bunch of twattanatolery, if you ask me.

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Please, everybody knows that alcohol is the best nonsense word generator, because flubiontion blubbred thungsit. Amitite?

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Soybomb?

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This made me remember a wonderful article I read as a kid about the challenge of translating Jabberwocky into other languages. I think this was it:

EDIT: Aha I really should read before I post. Yes, it’s from Godel, Escher, Bach, a book I loved as a teen.

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I think my company’s corporate PR department may be using that site for real.

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Do you still love it? Unrelated to this article, I’ve been considering reading it for my research.

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What the hell is going on in that picture… I can’t tell if Bob Dylan looks amused or confused?

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I’m sure that’s exactly what Dylan thought.

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This also seems appropriate for naming the Pokemon my kids dream up.

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When I tried to go vegetarian I switched from ordering the Steak Bomb sub to the Soy Bomb sub at the local sandwich shop.

And that was the end of my vegetarian phase.

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Oh yes but I haven’t read it in years. I don’t think it’s good source material, it’s too fun, but it’s great for generating ideas.

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Nobody remembers Sniglets?

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Everyone knows kids are the best nonsense word generators. My son gave these to the world:
• zong, “a tiny shirt a mouse can wear”
• hoff, “a hammer that only has one side”
• fompa, “a salad that’s a toy”

Now you don’t have to go crazy trying to figure out what to call those things.

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This page generates nonsense words…

confer, honing…

Oops. The developer forgot to include a dictionary check.

I wonder how many people will proclaim a word from that site is “nonsense” despite the word appearing in most dictionaries.

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I still use several sniglets, including “frust” and “lactomangulation” – the latter only a few days ago when I struggled with a small carton of heavy cream.

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This page generates nonsense words based on a frequency list of phonemes as they occur in legitimate English words. Occasionally an actual word may show up but it should mostly generate pronounceable gibberish.

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Many years ago I used to test each new version of Word with Jabberwocky. Bizarrely in those days it didn’t recognize “'Twas” as a word so I’d get “It was brimming and the slimy times/Did gore and gamble in the wage…”

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I like to think that when this happens, the words are not actual words but homonyms with their own nonsense etymology.

Confer noun
A disappointingly soft chestnut.

Honing noun
The tone and manner of a down-to-earth yet wise middle-aged waitress who is about to explain it to you.

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