Phoebe and Her Unicorn by Dana Simpson for July 11, 2014
Transcript:
Phoebe: I dunno how I feel about just making up words. I'm really proud of having a vocabulary above my grade level. It's sort of meaningless if everybody can just make up words. Sue: It there a word for "you two are boring; let's go set something on fire"? Marigold: Yes!
scyphi26 over 10 years ago
Now I absolutely MUST know what this word is.
scyphi26 over 10 years ago
On another detail, some food for thought for Phoebe: where do you think your vocabulary originally came from? wink
1_rick over 10 years ago
But “cromulent” DOES have a meaning—it means “acceptable” or “good enough.”
cwizard71 over 10 years ago
You should find a copy of [i]The Meaning Of Liff[/i] by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd. It illustrates your point perfectly.
kaykeyser over 10 years ago
Oh great now we get to see a unicorn set things on fire.
knitkitty over 10 years ago
Possibly… pyromania?
mr_sherman Premium Member over 10 years ago
With her fire talk I’m thinking Sue’s going to be a firecracker when puberty hits. Watch out Phoebe and HN.
yaPete over 10 years ago
Of course cromulent has a meaning – you can easily glark it from the context in the original sentence.
WaitingMan over 10 years ago
I wonder if Marigold has read “Finnigan’s Wake” by James Joyce? It has just about every word there is, real and imaginary.
John W Kennedy Premium Member over 10 years ago
There probably is a word for “You two are boring; let’s go set something on fire,” in certain Eskimo languages of the type that linguists call “polysynthetic”. In such languages, it’s rather difficult to tell the difference between the concepts of “word” and “sentence”.
Kali39 over 10 years ago
Yes, it’s called “free expression.”
Stellagal over 10 years ago
Snoresvilleflameflame is my candidate for the word.
Q4horse over 10 years ago
That is the beauty of English. New words get created all the time to describe new concepts, activities and new technologies.Now I agree with Sue, its time to change to a more energetic and active theme. This is summer camp after all!
Weapon Brown over 10 years ago
Sounds cromulent to me.
GabuEx over 10 years ago
Just wanted to say that I got introduced to this webcomic this morning, and I just finished marathonning my way through its entire archives. What a wonderful, awesome comic. :)
Jonathan K. and the Elusive Dream Girl over 10 years ago
Tediophobic pyromania.
Tandembuzz over 10 years ago
The word you’re looking for is “arson”.
Ermine Notyours over 10 years ago
Um, you can wait for the campfire, and set marshmallows on fire.
BRI-NO-MITE!! Premium Member over 10 years ago
If you think about it, every word was made up at some point.
Comic Minister Premium Member over 10 years ago
Whatever you say girls.
Ruqyo over 10 years ago
BORING?! Sue, I must vehemently disagree. While fire is indeed lovely, I prefer to be a logophile and a rabid bibliomaniac. I love words soooo much it’s not even funny, but I guess that’s to be expected of a voracious reader and a poet. I myself have taken the liberty of modifying and/or creating words for some of my work, and boy howdy would I like to sit down with Marigold and make up some words….UNICORN~
StrangerCoug over 10 years ago
I think Sue’s been hanging out with Millie a tad too long (even though we only actually see Millie burn something on purpose once).
zodo over 10 years ago
I recently invented a new word: ResurlexionIt means to bring an old or obsolete word back to life, by using it.
As is being done above, with cromulent.
nyssa over 10 years ago
I’ve been told that you have to write a sonnet before you’re allowed to make up words. William Shakespeare and my roommate wrote sonnets, so they can. I haven’t so I can’t.
MattSaunders about 6 years ago
Yawnflagration?
Kark_The_Red_Canadian_Dragon 6 months ago
I think it’s called “pyromania”. :)