A closer look
Writers for The Simpsons completely fabricated the word "embiggens" for the 1996 episode Lisa the Iconoclast, specifically as a joke about how towns will blindly accept fake, nonsensical vocabulary if it sounds slightly historical. The writers made a bet to see if they could slip a blatantly fake word into the script without the network executives noticing, pairing it with the equally absurd word "cromulent" to maximize the linguistic stupidity. Over two decades later, both words became so widely used in popular culture that Merriam-Webster actually surrendered and added them to their official dictionary. The fact that a sarcastic cartoon joke written by a bunch of Harvard nerds to mock civic ignorance ended up permanently altering the English language is a staggering testament to the sheer cultural dominance of nineties television, perfectly demonstrating how modern linguistics is essentially just a series of successful inside jokes
