Gamers Can Save the Words, Too

"The Legend of Zelda's Master Sword gets all the attention, but one shouldn't discount Link's brilliant sagittipotence."

"With an authoritative rumble of his gun's chainsaw, Marcus Fenix's supellectile skills are put to the test against a drably colored sofa in Gears of War."

"Naked Snake's frutescent adeptness contributes to his low-profile and sneaky nature in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater."

Whoa. Did a dictionary just land on my head? Is my situational dyslexia acting up again? Was my brain secretly replaced with that of a grandiloquent British gentleman of the 1800s?

Nope. I've merely stumbled upon the dimunitive and surprisingly entertaining Save the Words website. Want to learn a fresh approach to writing about video games? Read on to find out.

The brainy folks behind the Oxford English Dictionary started the website as both a storage space and an exhibit for disused words. Every year, antiquated words are sadly yanked out of dictionaries to fade into obscurity. Luckily, Oxford's ambitious project not only shelters these words from oblivion, but it also can considerably expand your terminology -- say, the next time you write about a game.

Save the Words We all know that words provide vibrancy and color to language; it's terribly dissapointing, then, that the vocabulary of today's games media is dismally limited. Overworked words such as groundbreaking, phenomenal, and mediocre -- let's not forget emo -- have quickly lost their luster when repeated ad nauseam across the industry. To echo a certain presidential slogan festooned across bumper stickers, it's time for change.

Save the Words' spaghetti bowl of distinctly-defined (albeit complex-sounding) words saves the day. Being able to neatly describe Link's great ability in archery (sagittipotence), Marcus's talent for handling furniture (suppellectile) the way he knows best, and Snake's penchant for blending into his shrub-filled surroundings (frutescent) is loads of fun and suitably fitting.

Go ahead, dive into the website and see what words (literally) jump out at you. Then, in the comments section below, write a short blurb (one or two sentences) about your favorite game that incorporates at least one word from the website. In closing, I'll avunculize for a moment: Don't worry if you dip into quibbleism or boreism -- this is a locupletative exercise! (In other words, have fun.)

(12)

Alexander Case

September 18, 2010

Thank you very much for pointing this site out to me. It should give me an interesting way to expand the vocabulary for readers on the various sites I write for.

Nick Nordstrom

I have a feeling Jason is going to hate this. :)

Ryan Good

Alone in the Dark should have been called Alone Murklins.

Alex Martin

Odynometer was a good one. It's a perfectly cromulent word but I can't imagine how one would work.

The action in Bioshock Infinite is delightfully nubivagent. The designers should be proud of the venustation they have worked upon their game.

Doug Otto

In Just Cause 2, you take over a character who commits large scale modernicide in attempt to remove the ruthless omniregency placed on the fictiitious country of Panau.

Haha, "cromulent" was coined by a Simpsons writer.

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Bryan Harper

Let's keep in mind the mainstream audience that may not want to have to look up the word "nubivagent", but there's nothing wrong with injecting some dusty English into your work.

I need to pick up one of those "word-a-day" calendars.

@Nick I love that word. Means "sounds strange but was derived by sensibly adding affixes to existing words." I like coining cromulisms and declare their cromulescence.

Omri Petitte

Good stuff so far, everyone -- keep them coming!

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Michael Rousseau

September 20, 2010

I'm a fan of archaic words, but not in everyday writing -- especially writing meant to appeal to a vast audience, like video game writing. This is exactly the thing I was trying to fight with my writing challenges. Readers shouldn't have to use a dictionary to understand your intent, and you shouldn't have to use sites like this to sound erudite. You can do just fine with plain language and a splash of flair.

Cool find, though.

I totally agree with you, Michael. In reality, these words wouldn't get much use outside of purely comedic reasons, and we're perfectly content with the vocabulary on hand for our straightforward, journalistic-style writing. I merely wish to present Save the Words as a fun brain-bending exercise -- it's fascinating to discover words with such constrained definitions.

Then I'm fine with this. So long as you're not suggesting that people go and add words like these into their games writing -- which is what I took away from this piece. That would be tragic.

WHAT THE HECK IS A BITMOB?