the.com/nonsense
the official language of toddlers, poets, and anyone who's had enough of you
means Words, ideas, or behavior that make no sense, carry no meaning, or are foolishly absurd.
from A transparent compound: the prefix "non-" (not, from Latin "non") bolted onto "sense" (meaning, perception, from Latin "sensus," "feeling" or "understanding," via Old French). So at its root it's simply "not-sense" — the absence of meaning — an English coinage that has been around since roughly the early 17th century. Its French cousin "nonsens" follows the very same logic, and English later coined fancier siblings like "nonsensical."
- literary genre
- Lewis Carroll made it a respected art form
- jabberwocky
- a famous poem built almost entirely of invented words
- brain science
- fake words trigger real meaning-seeking in the mind
- word origin
- from Latin non plus sensus, without sense
jabberwocky — lewis carroll's 1871 poem featuring invented words like 'brillig' and 'toves'
the emperor's new clothes — hans christian andersen 1837 tale where tailors sell an invisible suit
monty python — british comedy group famous for absurdist sketches like the dead parrot since 1969