"Amuzling" Words from the Writings of Horace Walpole

While browsing my peers’ discussion posts in the linguistics course I’m taking this semester, I discovered a post discussing the Old English noun-making morpheme “-þ” and how it became the modern “-th” morpheme we see today in nouns like “growth,” “strength,” and “youth.” For another example, my professor attached a screenshot from a game of Words with Friends she’d played, showing a 16-point word her opponent had played: “greenth.”

Curious about the noun’s meaning and origin, I did some excessive research (as usual) and was surprised to find that “greenth,” meaning “green vegetation,” was first attested in 1753. Given my classmates’ previous discussion about the “-th” suffix in Old English, I hadn’t expected “greenth” to have originated so recently in the language’s history.

After its first use, “greenth” wasn’t used again until over a century later. According to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the word became more common in the 19th century, and the man who coined the term didn’t live to see anyone else use it… or the dozens of other words he invented.

Enter Horace Walpole, an English writer and politician probably best known for authoring the first Gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto, in 1764. He also oversaw the construction of London’s Strawberry Hill House, and his father was Sir Robert Walpole, the first British Prime Minister.

Portrait of Horace Walpole (c. 1756-57), Sir Joshua Reynolds

Horace Walpole stood out from the rest of 18th century high society, though, with modern scholars calling him everything from “camp” to asexual to “bitchy” in debates over attempts to ascribe modern labels to Walpole’s sexuality. Walpole may not have fit into any of these boxes, though, and he certainly didn’t fit into boxes created by other writers of his time. After all, he invented a new literary genre—why not invent his own words, too?

In the same year he first used the word “greenth” in his letters, Walpole also coined “gloomth,” a similarly structured noun I discovered while researching “greenth” in the OED. “Gloomth” seemingly refers to gloominess, although the OED says it might refer to something “apparently peculiar to Walpole.”

A year later, Walpole coined a third noun with the “-th” suffix, writing that Strawberry Hill House was “now at the height of its greenth, blueth, gloomth, honeysuckle-and-syringahood” in 1754. Walpole used “blueth,” a noun supposedly referring to the color of a blue sky or, more broadly, blueness, again nearly two decades later, writing “I am descended into the blueth and greenth” in 1772. Judging by his enduring use of these words, Walpole must have really believed in their efficacy as valid English words and wanted them to stick.

And stick they did. Although these words are incredibly rare in modern use, the OED doesn’t consider them obsolete (and apparently “greenth” is used enough to be playable in Words with Friends)! However, the one Walpole word that truly stood the test of time is “serendipity,” first attested in a 1754 letter he excitedly wrote to his friend Horace Mann to share his brand-new word. Apparently, he based the word on an English translation of a Persian fairy tale, The Three Princes of Serendip, because the protagonists “were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of.”

Most of Walpole’s words weren’t as far-reaching, though, and most are now obsolete… which is a shame, because some are clever, and others are just hilarious. I’ve put together a simplified list of my favorites, with (some abridged) definitions from the OED.

• Airgonaut (noun): someone who flies via hot air balloon.
• Amuzle (verb): to amuse or distract oneself.
• Anglomany (noun): American support and admiration for England; this word was later used by John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.
• Honey-blob (noun): a sweet yellow gooseberry.
• Jack-puddinghood (noun): the state or condition of being a clown, jester, or buffoon.
• Junketaceous (adjective): given to celebrating and merrymaking, especially with food and drink.
• Mastiff day (noun): a very hot day, hotter than “dog days.”
• Methusalemess (noun): a very old woman, presumably in reference to the long-living biblical Methusalah.
• Minauderie (noun): a coquettish manner; flirtation or affectation.
• Minionette (adjective): small and pretty.
• Mononeirist (noun): someone who has only ever dreamed once.
• Muckibus (adjective): drunkenly sentimental or maudlin.
• Nincompoophood (noun): the state or condition of being a nincompoop.
• Robberaceously (adverb): in a manner suggestive of robbers.
• Timwhisky (noun): a small horse-drawn carriage with 1-2 seats and 1-2 horses.
• Well-behated (adjective): greatly or widely hated.

I’ve since developed a bit of an obsession with researching now-obsolete English words, and there are so many I think should make a modern comeback! “Junketaceous” is such a fittingly fun word to say, and I’m already starting to feel the “mastiff days” of summer sneaking up on us here in Florida…Even if his words become increasingly disused, though, I hope Walpole can rest easily knowing that his words are not “well-behated,” but well-beloved (at least by me)... and that “greenth” is also playable in official Scrabble.