Happy birthday, twerp

Albert Einstein

Einsteinian became a word in 1925. It was, of course, in reference to Albert Einstein, the great physicist who even now, a hundred years later, is synonymous with brainy. Perhaps in his spirit, that seems to have been a good year for long words in general. Among words coined that year were arachnophobia, Australopithecus, compartmentalize, configurational, neonate, neurosurgeon, oncologist, puerilism, and readability.

Each year at this time I like to celebrate the 100th anniversary of words, according to There's a Word for It, a 2010 book by Sol Steinmetz.

Some product names became part of the language in 1925: Kleenex, Leica, Tootsie Roll and Wheaties. Perhaps because of Tootsie Rolls, we also got the word chewy that year.

The year had its share of new slang words: ball-hawking, coulda, cuppa, dis, dream team, fink, freebie, giddap, gimp, hightail, nudnik, twerp and whoops.

We also got cannoli, cosmic rays, guppy, knitwear, makeover, marathoner, middlebrow, motel, mothproof, needlepointer, pinboard, quiche, superstar, usherette and zipper that year.

Some of these words have already all but dropped out of the language, but many off them seem as fresh as they were a hundred years ago.