Gobblefunk

“I’ll swish you to a swazzle! I’ll swash you to a swizzle! I’ll gnash you to a gnozzle! I’ll gnosh you to a gnazzle!” (The Twits)

Did you know that today is Roald Dahl Day?

Roald Dahl is my hands-down favourite author, and was renowned for inventing words and creating his own distinct vocabulary. This year marks the 30th anniversary of one of his best loved books, the BFG, and for this book, he invented a collection of 238 words, which are known as gobblefunk. The words were fictional but made reading fun. The meanings of the words weren’t always clear, but it is clear that Dahl got immense enjoyment from creating words which were fun to say and captured the reader’s imagination. He would often take two word fragments and mix them together.

You can find a list of Dahl-isms here. Which one is your favourite?