Applied Improv Exercise: Made-Up Words

Language is fluid, ever changing; it’s a living thing. It’s in constant flow, in constant creation, and recreation. Think about slang, it’s constantly being created. Urban Dictionary can keep you up on the latest. The Oxford English Dictionary adds new words every year; they could barely keep up with all the language generation during the pandemic. Every business has their own language, words created for that culture of work. Learning about how every human system creates their own “lingo” was part of my college language development courses.

New words are constantly being created and added to our collective lexicon.

What happens when we take that model—that language is fluid and not static and can be created not merely replicated—and make up words in an applied improvisation workshop? We immediately enter that sweet space of play, of agreement, of reality creation—a world where our thoughts, dreams, imaginations cannot be contained. We give ourselves permission to enter creative flow.

I employed that applied improvisation exercise (“Made-up Word Definitions”) in an applied improvisation writing workshop for academic surgeons working on their research articles at the SOQIC department at Northwestern University.

Think the medical and research communities don’t create new words? Think of every name brand drug. Those are all made up words, created from pit of Greek and Latin roots, some of the chemical compositions, and some marketing flair thrown in. Think of every new disease that’s discovered: they are new words.

The academic surgeons created several new words like: floozytree, screenbean, ofo, blouncey, schnitzerdoodle, and muggernook. The team then defined them, used them in sentences, discussed what parts of language they are, and, mostly, laughed at these silly creations.

Creating language is fun! And the moment you create a word that’s never been created, worlds open up. And once we create worlds, we create new realities—we expand, we grow. As writers, once we unlock the possibilities of what language can do for us, we leave rote behind and enter into a space of discovery.

Create a new world for your team using made-up words

Try “Made-Up Word Definitions” with your team. There are many variations of this game, the one beliw is one of the variations I like becuase it involves gifting a made up word to another player, taking half of the burden ff of them to come up with a word and define it.

Have your team stand in a circle (or you can play on Zoom).

Player 1 calls to Player 2: I heard you use a new word lately (insert made up word here): Kapopnik. Can you tell me what that means or use it in a sentence?

Player 2 replies: Oh yes, Kapopnik is (insert made-up definition of new word here) a Yiddish term that means someone who really loves homemade popcorn. As in: “Dave is a true kapopnik; he bought a special brass kettle just to make his kettle corn at home!”

Player 2 offers and new word to Player 3 and Player 3 defines it in the same manner. go around the circle at least one or two times.

Every definition is correct, every new word is genius.

Support each other’s creations with laughing and clapping!

Teams love this game becuase they are creating something memorable together and very often they will use these words with each other in mettings long after I’ve facilitated the workshop.

If you try “Made-Up Word Definitions,” let me know in the comments!