Who invented the word “meme”? These 10 words were created by writers

Image: Art Lasovsky

Did you know that some of the words we consider "modern" today were actually first coined in the 19th century or earlier? Writers use words as their building blocks to create entire worlds. But certain authors go beyond just storytelling. Some of them have given us not only fascinating stories but also the vocabulary for our daily lives. Today, we're going to reveal 10 words you probably didn't know were first coined by writers!

Image: NordWood Themes

Memes are all over the internet and, with cameras everywhere these days, you have to be careful not to become one.

Today, memes are an inexhaustible source of virtual fun. However, the origin of the word "meme" doesn't come from a comedian but from a scientist. Who would have thought?

The term was coined by the British biologist Richard Dawkins (1941), who derived it from the Greek word mimema, meaning "imitated." In his 1976 book, The Selfish Gene, Dawkins introduced the word to draw a parallel between memes and biological genes, emphasizing the way cultural information spreads and evolves.

Image: Joe Ciciarelli

Some words are like chameleons, with changing meanings or connotations depending on the context and the way they are used. Back in the day, calling someone "smart" or "intellectual" came with a touch of negativity, giving the word "nerd" some of that tone. Today, however, intelligent people who are enthusiastic about learning are viewed with admiration.

Although the term is now widely used, not many know its origin. The first occurrence of the word "nerd" in print was in the 1950 book If I Ran the Zoo by our beloved Dr. Seuss (1904-1991). That was over 70 years ago! In the story, "nerd" refers to a strange little imaginary animal.

Image: Olga Tutunaru

Long before it was a famous internet search engine, the word "Yahoo" appeared in literature as early as the 18th century. If you consult the dictionary, you'll find a negative definition, as the term describes someone rude, boorish, or even unintelligent.

Back in 1726, Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) introduced the term "Yahoo" in his epic Gulliver's Travels. In the book, Yahoos are brutish creatures that resemble humans in looks, but with extremely unpleasant habits.

Image: Chris Barbalis

Maybe this isn't a word you use every day, but once you get to know it better, you’ll surely find the occasion to use it.

The English poet John Milton (1608-1674) created this word by combining the Greek pan-, meaning "all," with the Latin daemonium, meaning "evil spirit." It is the name the author gave to the capital of hell in his 1667 book Paradise Lost.

Today, the word is used to describe a chaotic and disorderly crowd or situation.

Image: Rasa Kasparaviciene

Most of us have boiled a couple of eggs at some point in our lives. But let's be honest, we've probably messed it up a few times. The experts—or eggsperts—say the ideal boiling time for perfect hard-boiled eggs is about 12 minutes.

But let's pause all this egg talk before your mouth starts watering.

Metaphorically, "hard-boiled" is also employed to characterize tough and uncompromising personalities. While the term may have historical roots, the Merriam-Webster dictionary states that it was the American writer Mark Twain (1835-1910) who first used it in this figurative sense in 1886, describing emotional toughness.

Image: Colton Duke

Here's a word we use to this day, which has its first written appearance in the 16th century. That's right, more than 500 years ago.

Sir Thomas More (1478 –1535), an English philosopher, lawyer, and statesman, gave us this term in his 1516 work, Utopia. In this text, he describes a society that's practically a wish list of awesome qualities.

Utopia is like a dreamy community where everything is great. The word comes from Ancient Greek, and its literal translation would be "no place," probably a nod to the idea that utopia is so perfect that it's impossible.

Image: Alexander Sinn

As its name implies, cyberspace is the virtual environment where communication occurs via computer networks. Despite its widespread recognition today, the term made its debut in the 1980s.

Credit for coining the word and its meaning goes to the American-Canadian writer William Gibson (1948), who introduced it in a story published in 1982 and reused it in his 1984 novel, Neuromancer. In this science-fiction narrative set in the future, the author creates a world inhabited by artificial intelligence. Not so far from what we’re experiencing today, right?

Image: Thought Catalog

Today, a growing number of people are opting to work from home or, in some cases, adopting a lifestyle known as "digital nomadism," working while traveling around the world.

Despite these new options facilitated by technology, our jobs remain a fundamental part of our lives. For that reason, many people consider themselves "workaholics," those addicted to work.

The term is often credited to psychologist Wayne Oates (1917-1999), who employs it in his book Confessions of a Workaholic (1973). However, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word was seen as early as 1947 in the Toronto Daily Star in Canada.

Image: Per Lööv

Also related to the world of work, the term "freelance" explains its origin very well.

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) used the word in Ivanhoe, a historical novel of 1820, to characterize a type of medieval warrior whose lance was not pledged to the service of any particular lord.

Although today's "freelancers" don't use lances, they're independent workers who provide their services to different employers.

Image: Unsplash

Lewis Carroll (1832-1898), the brilliant mind behind Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), was a creative English writer known for coining portmanteaus, innovative words formed by blending existing ones.

An example of this is the term "chortle," which Carroll introduced in his poem "Jabberwocky" (1871) by combining "chuckle" and "snort." As the name implies, the expression describes a brief and noisy laugh.

Sailors slang

You won't believe these 10 phrases have a salty sailor past

Life on ships was all about teamwork and facing the unknown. Sailors dealt with changing weather, rough waters, and threats that weren’t always easy to anticipate. Many phrases that still sound familiar today came out of that world, even though most of us don't use ropes or read the wind anymore. Even far from the ocean, these 10 expressions still describe everyday life.

Can you imagine what "true colors" meant in sailing slang? It was actually a direct reference to a ship’s flag. Back then, flags could show a ship’s country or empire, loyalty, or even surrender. But ships could also sail under false colors to deceive other ships and hide their real intentions. When those intentions were finally revealed, the ship showed its true colors.

That meaning is not far from the one we use today. Today, the expression is used when someone reveals their real feelings or intentions after keeping them hidden for some time.

We’ve all entered a new job or tried a new activity, and had to learn how the whole system works before taking the first steps. That is the moment you get to learn the ropes, before things start to flow naturally. And on a ship full of real ropes, sailors had to learn, one by one, which rope was for which function and where it belonged before starting to sail by themselves.

When the ship faced a dangerous or urgent situation at sea, everyone’s help was needed, and the call was simple: all hands on deck. In that phrase, "hands" meant the sailors or workers on board. It was a call for when the crew had to act quickly. The phrase keeps almost the same spirit these days. We use all hands on deck when a task is too big for one person, and everyone’s effort is required to get the job done.

Imagine standing on the shore and spotting a ship far out at sea, which isn’t close enough to arrive yet. That distant part of the sea was called the offing, so when a ship was in the offing, people knew it was on its way. The phrase made its way from ships to everyday life, and today, "in the offing" means something will happen soon, and you already see it coming.

When getting ready for difficult situations, we often say we’d better "batten down the hatches." Originally, the expression meant getting ready for rough weather. Sailors would close and secure the ship's hatch covers so water couldn’t get below deck. The word "batten" refers to strips used to fasten things down. Years had passed, and the meaning went from protecting a ship from bad weather to protecting yourself before any challenge.

Cannons were extremely heavy and mounted on wheeled carriages. If the heavy ropes or tackles securing them broke during a battle or a heavy storm, the cannon would become a "loose cannon," sliding and rolling violently across the gun deck, destroying everything and everyone in its path. That dangerous image stuck over the decades, and today, we use the phrase to refer to someone who is unpredictable or to a situation that is dangerously getting out of our control

In sailing, the sheets were the ropes or chains that controlled the sails, and when the sheets came loose, the sails could flap, and the boat would start to move in a messy, unsteady way. The comparison is easy to imagine: someone very drunk can stumble like a boat that can’t stay steady. Sailors already used that image for a person who was too drunk to walk straight, and to this day, there may be no better way to describe it.

Out at sea, "by_"_ meant sailing close to the wind, while "large" meant sailing with the wind coming more from behind or from the side. So, when a ship sailed well by and large, it was capable of handling different kinds of wind. Over the years, that idea became a way to express something in a broad sense; it is used when talking about something in general, describing the big picture without getting stuck in every small detail.

Currently, "taken aback" describes a shocking or unexpected situation, but back in the sailing days, it was all about the wind. It described the moment when the wind hit the sails from the wrong side and pushed back against the mast. Now, when people are taken aback, it's probably because they received unexpected news or were caught off guard, leaving them unsure how to react.

The phrase smooth sailing comes from the kind of trip every sailor wanted: calm water, good wind, and no major trouble ahead. When conditions were right, the ship could move forward easily. Today, the phrase works almost the same way, but outside the sea. People use it when situations become easier after a problem is fixed. A work project or a trip can become smooth sailing once the hardest part is over.