Photo by ACF

Photo by ACF

I recently bought a Kindle version of the latest issue of a major science fiction magazine. In one of the novelettes the spaces between several pairs of words were missing. On a random page I counted nine instances of this. It appears this only happened to one story.

Rather than complain that the issue should have been checked before release, or prattle about the overall decline in proofreading and copy editing, or desire my money back, I’m going to take this as an opportunity to explore the new words created. After all, it is the author of that story who should be most upset, and perhaps it was not the magazine’s fault in the first place. (The issue was downloaded directly to my computer and then transferred to my Kindle, so it was not an instance of something going wrong during wireless transmission, even if such a thing could cause such a mistake.)

These appeared in the story and were not meant to be words, but I’ll guess at their meanings.

Withinfifteen: A state of being during a bout of temporary fame.

Chartreusepeeking: Like trainspotting, with a flair for color.

Gibbonclutching: When you vehemently adhere to the stated facts in a history book, especially one about Rome, you are gibbonclutching.

Rattledonto: Similar to hurly-burly, this a chaos of sound.

Toinvent: You should always have a vent in your toin.

Braidspinned: Said of a spacecraft riding the corkscrew effects of black holes on light. (Supposed to be “braids pinned.”)

Themescape: An aesthetic among a group of ideas. (Supposed to be “them escape.”)

Apossible: Between possible and impossible.

Friendgot: A state of being often achieved on Facebook.

Throughsea: Related to the ridiculous adoption of “sea change” as a common term, from the poem, this is your state of mind through a devastating event.

Irresponsiblemanagement: Recorded here as the longest unintentional word in the story.

Gownseemed: It looked like a dress ….

Lightspread: The effect of light on a certain portion of the sky or at a particular time of day: “The lightspread of twilight was chartreuse.”

Leastsome: At the very, very, very least; the opposite of “fulsome.”

Uphere: Upper atmosphere, or outer shell of a spherical craft.

Akoala: A greeting on Gliese 581g.

Somesecret: Somerset. Secret. A very secret secret, that must be whispered.

Staticcable: Able to carry electricity.

Theelbow: A second bow of a ship, at the heel, or stern.

Aspider: Someone who breathes heavily.

Ascrisp: A detachable weapon that is part of a suit of armor.

These also appeared and should already be words, to save space in dictionaries and everywhere else: andthen, downat, witha, withthe, earlydays, lookingout.

Larry Niven once said he used typos to inspire made-up words for his science fiction, so I say let’s continue to let the electrons fly and scramble the language. Doubleplusgood, no?