Poet and critic Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born on this day in 1772.

A leader of the British Romantic movement, Coleridge’s most famous poems include “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” which originated the idea of an albatross as a burden or obstacle; “Kubla Khan,” which popularized Xanadu meaning a magnificent and luxurious place (and inspired a terrible Olivia Newton-John movie); and “Christabel,” which some critics call a vampire story.

Coleridge was also fond of creating new words, many of which we still use today. Here are 10 of our favorites.

actualize

“To make our Feelings, with their vital warmth, actualize our Reason.”

“The Friend,” The works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge: prose and verse, 1809

Corporate executives can thank poet Coleridge for verbifying the adjective actual. The psychology term self-actualization, or the realization of oneself, is from 1939, according to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).

impact

“In any given perception there is a something which has been communicated to it [the mind] by an impact, or an impression ab extra.”

Biographia Literaria; Or, Biographical Sketches of My Literary Life and Opinions, 1817

The earliest sense of impact is from about 1601, says the OED, with the meaning “to press closely into or in something.” In 1781, it also came to refer to the act of one body colliding into another. Coleridge’s figurative sense, “the effect or impression of one thing on another,” is from 1817.

intensify

“But the will itself by confining and intensifying the attention may arbitrarily give vividness or distinctness to any object whatsoever.”

“Biographia Literaria,” Works: Prose and Verse Complete, 1817

Coleridge includes an explanation slash apology for his neologism:

I am aware that this word occurs neither in Johnson’s Dictionary, nor in any classical writer. But the word ‘to intend,’ which Newton and others before him employ in this sense, is now so completely appropriated to another meaning, that I could not use it without ambiguity.

As so he created his own word, as one should.

logolatry

“What is the whole system from Philo to Plotinus, and thence to Proclus inclusively, but one fanciful process of hypostasizing logical conceptions and generic terms? In Proclus it is Logolatry run mad.”

Coleridge’s Literary Remains, Vol. 4, 1834

This word that means “a blind regard for words or verbal truthfulness” should definitely be used more often (especially during this election season). Logolatry combines the Greek logos, “word,” and latreia, “worship.”

narcissism

“Of course, I am glad to be able to correct my fears as far as public Balls, Concerts, and Time-murder in Narcissism.”

Letter, 1822

Coleridge’s sense of narcissism is “excessive love or admiration of oneself,” and is based on the Greek myth of Narcissus, a beautiful young man who falls in love with his own reflection in a pool of water, only to drown in that same pool. The flower that grows in his place is named for him.

Narcissism as a psychology term — “characterized by self-preoccupation, lack of empathy, and unconscious deficits in self-esteem” — originated in 1905 from the German Narzissismus, which was coined in 1899 by by German psychiatrist Paul Näcke.

pessimism

“Why, ’tis almost as bad as Lovell’s ‘Farmhouse,’ and that would be at least a thousand fathoms deep in the dead sea of pessimism.”

The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Poetry, Plays, Literary Essays, Autobiography and Letters, 1794

Coleridge’s use of pessimism is borrowed from the French pessimisme, which comes from the Latin pessimus, “the worst.” Pessimism is modeled on optimism, which is from 1759.

relativity

“In every religious and moral use of the word, God, taken absolutely, that is, not as a God, or the God, but as God, a relativity, a distinction in kind ab omni quod non est Deus.”

“Notes on Waterland’s Vindication of Christ’s Divinity,” Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1834

The physics use of relativity arose in 1858, not long after Coleridge’s. Albert Einstein’s special theory of relativity was published in 1905, says the Online Etymology Dictionary, and his general theory of relativity in 1915.

selfless

“Ant tribes, with their commonwealth and confederacies, their warriors and miners, the husband-folk, that fold in their tiny flocks on the honeyed leaf, and the virgin sisters with the holy Instincts of Maternal Love, detached and in selfless purity.”

“Moral and Religious Aphorisms,” The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1825

Almost 200 years older than selfless is selfish, which combines self and the Old English suffix –ish. The word selfish was apparently coined by Presbyterians.

soulmate

“In order not to be miserable, you must have a Soul-mate as well as a House or a Yoke-mate.”

Letters, Conversations, and Recollections of S.T. Coleridge, 1822

Wise words, S.T. While Coleridge coined this term in an 1822 letter to an unidentified “young lady,” the use of soulmate didn’t take off until the 1980s, although it’s not clear why. Perhaps it was due to a 1980 edition of Carl Jung’s The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious which mentions man having a soul-mate “somewhere in the upper world.” Another possibility is the 1980s expansion of the New Age movement. Or maybe it was all those romcoms.

Coleridge might have coined the term in light of his own unhappy marriage. When the woman he actually loved became engaged, he married another and spent much of the marriage away from his probably equally unhappy wife.

suspension of disbelief

“A semblance of truth sufficient to procure for these shadows of imagination that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith.”

Biographia Literaria; Or, Biographical Sketches of My Literary Life and Opinions, 1817

The term suspension of disbelief refers to an audience’s “voluntary withholding of scepticism,” says the OED, “with regard to incredible characters and events.” In other words, sure there’s no such thing as zombies, but Walking Dead fans are willing to suspend their disbelief to have their pants scared off them.

Great Scott, it’s Sir Walter’s Scott’s birthday! Born in 1771, the Scottish poet and novelist is the author of such classics as Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, and The Lady of the Lake. He also introduced into English words from German, Norse, and of course Scots that we still use today. Here are eight of our favorites.

berserker

“The support of the two Berserkir would be of the greatest advantage to him.”

Illustrations of Northern Antiquities, 1814

Scott introduced both berserker and berserk into the English language. Berserkers were ancient Norse warriors known for their “savagery and reckless frenzy in battle” (perhaps due in part to the ingestion of hallucinogenic mushrooms). They would also wear bear or wolf pelts in battle, hence their name, which translates from Old Norse as “bear shirt.”

Cedric

“On this singular gorget was engraved, in Saxon characters, an inscription of the following purport:—’Gurth, the son of Beowulph, is the born thrall of Cedric of Rotherwood.’”

Ivanhoe, 1820

Cedric the Entertainer can thank the Scottish poet for his name. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, Cedric was a mistake for the Old English Cerdic. The name Cedric peaked in popularity in the 1960s, says the Baby Name Wizard.

cold shoulder

“Ye may mind that the Countess’s dislike didna gang farther at first than just showing o’ the cauld shouther.”

The Antiquary, 1816

The next time someone gives you an icy reception, warm up by imagining Scott uttering his invented idiom in Highland brogue. The Online Etymology Dictionary says that while cold shoulder began in a literal sense, it was also often used “with a punning reference” to a “cold shoulder of mutton,” which was considered a “poor man’s dish” and perhaps something served to “an unwanted guest with deliberate intention to convey displeasure.”

coven

“The witches of Auldearne, according to this penitent, were so numerous, that they were told off into squads, or covines, as they were termed, to each of which were appointed two officers.”

Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft, 1884

While coven meaning a gathering of witches was first used in the 1660s, it was Scott’s use that popularized the word. Coven might be a variation of covent, a Middle English word for “convent,” a community of nuns.

expletive

“We omit here various execrations with which these honest gentlemen garnished their discourse, retaining only such of their expletives as are least offensive.”

Guy Mannering, 1815

The word expletive has been around since the early 17th century, but Scott was the first to use it to mean a profane, vulgar, or obscene oath. The word comes from the Late Latin explētīvus, “serving to fill out,” which reflects an earlier sense, a word or phrase that has no meaning but is only added to “fill out a sentence or a metrical line.”

freelance

“I offered Richard the service of my Free Lances, and he refused them.”

Ivanhoe, 1820

Who’d have thought contractors and consultants had something in common with medieval mercenary knights? When Scott first used freelance, he was referring to such adventurers who offered their services in return for payment, with the idea that their lances were free to the highest bidder.

By the 1850s, says the OED, freelance also referred to “a politician or controversialist with no fixed affiliation to a particular party or viewpoint,” and by 1899, someone who works as a freelancer.

nixie

“Why performed in such a solitude, and by what class of choristers, were questions which the terrified imagination of the adept, stirred with all the German superstitions of nixies, oak-kings, wer-wolves, hobgoblins, black spirits and white, blue spirits and grey, durst not even attempt to solve.”

The Antiquary, 1816

A nixie is a kind of water elf or fairy. The word comes from the Old High German nihhussa, “water sprite.” Nixie also refers to, in American English, a piece of mail that’s undeliverable due to an incorrect or illegible address. This sense comes from nix meaning none or nothing.

sporran

“I advise no man to attempt opening this sporran till he has my secret.”

Rob Roy, 1817

A sporran is a fur or leather pouch worn at the front of the kilt as part of the “the traditional dress of men of the Scottish Highlands.” The word ultimately comes from the Middle Irish sparán, which might come from the Late Latin bursa, “bag.”

American writer Herman Melville was born on this day in 1819. His experience as a sailor on a merchant ship and on an 18-month whaling voyage provided fodder for his most famous novels, including Typee, Omoo, and of course Moby Dick.

Such seafaring accounts put into print nautical slang and lingo perhaps only previously heard among sailors, but the one-time teacher and customs agent has also given us a few surprising gems we still use today.

ballyhoo of blazes

“Be off wid ye thin, darlints, and steer clear of the likes of this ballyhoo of blazes as long as ye live.”

Omoo: Adventures in the South Seas, 1847

While not currently in use, ballyhoo of blazes definitely should be. While the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) omits a definition, we’re guessing it means a “slovenly ship,” or ballyhoo, from the blazes of hell.

The word ballyhoo may be a variant of ballahoo, which is Caribbean in origin and refers to a fast-sailing schooner. However, ballyhoo meaning sensational publicity or a noisy uproar seems to be unrelated, and might instead come from the Irish English word for “hell,” ballyhooly, which itself could come from Ballyhooly, a village in County Cork, which according to the OED, was “formerly notorious for faction fighting,” although this might be a back-rationalization.

cetology

“Therefore you must not, in every case at least, take the higgledy-piggledy whale statements, however authentic, in these extracts, for veritable gospel cetology.”

Moby Dick, 1851

Cetology is that branch of zoology which studies cetaceous animals such as whales, porpoises, and dolphins. The word cetology comes from the Latin cetus, “any large sea creature,” which comes from the Greek ketos, “a whale, a sea monster.”

Cholo

“It was in the midst of this repose, that Archy, one of the cordon, whose post was near the after-hatches, whispered to his neighbor, a Cholo, the words above.”

Moby Dick, 1851

That’s right, Herman Melville was the first, on record at least, to use Cholo in English. However, he doesn’t use it with the sense of a derogatory term for someone perceived to be a lower-class Mexican, or a Mexican or Latino gang member, but to refer to “an Indian or mixed-race person of Latin America.” This sense of cholo might come from the Nahuatl xolotl, “dog, mutt.”

curio

“But be easy, be easy, this here harpooneer I have been tellin’ you of has just arrived from the south seas, where he bought up a lot of ‘balmed New Zealand heads (great curios, you know), and he’s sold all on ’em but one.”

Moby Dick, 1851

A curio is an unusual or odd piece of art or bric-a-brac, and is short for “curiosity.” Bric-a-brac are “small, usually ornamental objects valued for their antiquity, rarity, originality, or sentimental associations.” The word comes from the French bric-à-brac, “expressive of confusion.”

czarship

“It is a witchery of social czarship which there is no withstanding.”

Moby Dick, 1851

The word czar is, of course, Russian in origin, but ultimately  comes from the Latin Caesar, “Emperor.” The title czar was first adopted by the Russian emperor Ivan IV in 1547.

The figurative meaning of “person with dictatorial powers” is from 1866, says the Online Etymology Dictionary, and initially referred to President Andrew Johnson.

nightlife

“All the garish night-life of a vast thoroughfare, crowded and wedged by day, and even now, at this late hour, brilliant with occasional illuminations.”

Pierre; or The Ambiguities, 1852

Disco-lovers everywhere can thank the 19th-century author for this modern-sounding word referring to social activities and entertainment that take place at night.

plum-puddinger

“After listening to these plum-puddingers till nearly eleven o’clock, I went up stairs to go to bed.”

Moby Dick, 1851

Plum-puddinger refers to either a whaling ship that goes out on short voyages or a crew member on such a ship. While Melville’s is the earliest recorded use of this term, we assume it was common in nautical vernacular before then.

The plum-puddinger is so called because “because the crew has fresh provisions and an abundant supply of plum-pudding,” a staple apparently for 19th-century shipmen.

slobgollion

“It is called slobgollion; an appellation original with the whalemen, and even so is the nature of the substance.”

Moby Dick, 1851

Slobgollion is whaling slang for a substance found in sperm whale oil, says the OED. In Moby Dick, Melville describes such a substance as “an ineffably oozy, stringy affair,” which is obtained “after a prolonged squeezing, and subsequent decanting.”

While the origin of slobgollion is unknown, earlier meanings of slob include mud or slime, while the second part of the word could be influenced by gullion, a mean and worthless wretch, or gollin, a kind of fish.

A variation is slumgullion, which in addition to fish offal refers to a cheap and watery drink — first used by Mark Twain in Roughing It — as well as a kind of thin stew.

snivelization

“Ye wouldn’t have been to sea here, leadin’ this dog’s life, if you hadn’t been snivelized…Snivelization has been the ruin on ye.”

Redburn, 1849

Snivelization is another Melville creation we should begin using immediately. The OED defines the term as “civilization considered derisively as a cause of anxiety or plaintiveness” — in other words, you’re a sniveling whiner because you’re too civilized. The word snivel originally meant to run at the nose.

whiffy

“When all were pleasantly seated beneath the canopy…Media proposed that, for the benefit of the company, some one present, in a pithy, whiffy sentence or two, should sum up the character of the Tapparians.”

Mardi: And a Voyage Thither, 1864

Whiffy meaning “having a bad smell” comes from whiff, which could refer to a slight gust of wind, a passing odor, or an intake of breath. In baseball, whiff means to strike out, and in sports in general, to swing and miss.