Nuts and Bolts: perfectly cromulent words.

 The Merriam-Webster Dictionary says on its website: While we don't yet enter cromulent in our dictionaries, it's a perfectly cromulent candidate for future entry.

And is it?

The word cromulent was first used in the February 18th 1996 episode of The Simpsons. In the script, someone at a school event uses the word embiggens, and a teacher remarks that in her experience the word's use is confined to the town of Springfield. But a colleague replies that it's a perfectly cromulent word.

Cromulent must mean acceptable, or established, but it can't have been established on the date of its first use. So the question is: at what point does the word cromulent become cromulent?

Many millions of people would have heard the word in that first showing of the episode, and understood its meaning (and most of them probably wouldn't even have realised that it was a joke) so perhaps the word cromulent was established as soon as it was uttered. Certainly its status as a quotation would have given a strong and instant basis for acceptability.

In any case, The Word Den is determined to use the word cromulent as much as possible. 

Especially in the presence of people who think they know everything.

Word To Use Today: cromulent. This word was invented after a challenge to the writers of The Simpsons to come up with some new words which sounded as if they were already part of the English language. Cromulent, meaning acceptable, or fine, or established, is David X Cohen's elegant and cromulent solution to this problem.

The word is still around, so quite a few people seem to agree that it's a real and usable and above all cromulent word.