25 words penned by 20th Century writers

Impress your friends and colleagues by knowing who coined words such as cyberspace, factoid, meme, piehole, debunk and more from years ago.

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This post lists a number of words that were introduced to the English lexicon by novelists and other writers during the 20th Century.

1. Beep: Scientist and novelist Arthur C. Clarke came up with this onomatopoeic word for a small, high-pitched signal.

2. Blurb: Humorist Gelet Burgess coined this term for a short piece of promotional copy.

3. Catch-22: Novelist Joseph Heller named his best-known novel after his term for the concept of a lose-lose predicament.

4. Cojones: Novelist Ernest Hemingway borrowed the Spanish word meaning “testicles” to refer to courage.

5. Cyberspace: Novelist William Gibson combined the extant prefix cyber with space to describe an online environment.

6. Debunk: Novelist William E. Woodward created this word to describe the concept of disproving fraudulent claims.

7. Doublethink: Novelist George Orwell named the concept of having contradictory simultaneous ideas.

8. Dreamscape: Poet Sylvia Plath came up with this word for a dreamlike scene.

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