Red Dwarf: Encyclopedia II - Red Dwarf - Invented words

Red Dwarf - Invented words

Red Dwarf famously employed a vocabulary of fictional expletives in order to avoid using potentially-offensive expletives in the show, and to give nuance to futuristic colloquial language. By far, the most famous example is smeg. Variations of the word include: smegger, smeghead, smeg off, smeg-for-brains, and smegging hell; it is used as a synonym for the word fuck. In one episode, Rimmer tells a vending machine to "smeg off, you smeggy smegging smegger!"; "Bodyswap" features the phrase "Oh smeg, what the smegging smeg's he smegging done? He's smegging killed me!". The writers of Red Dwarf have stated that they invented the word and that it has no connection with any similar real words, such as smegma; however, lexicographer Tony Thorne, in his 1990 Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (ISBN 074752856X), reports instances of smeg (and derivatives) being used as a term of "mild contempt and even affection" among "schoolboys, students and punks" as early as the mid-1970s—a decade or so prior to the inception of the Red Dwarf phenomenon—and unequivocally traces the etymology of the term back to smegma.

Other invented expletives and euphemisms include goit (one who is annoying or awkward; perhaps adapted from the words git and oik) and gimboid (one who is stupid or clumsy; possibly an adaptation of the word gimp). Another term of abuse used in the show was the word gwenlan, the last name of Gareth Gwenlan who was the head of comedy for the BBC and passed on the show in London.

The currency in use at the time Red Dwarf left the Solar System was apparently the "dollarpound", divided into one hundred "pennycents". It is also sometimes referred to as the "buckquid".

In the episode "Bodyswap" (series 3 episode 4), Cat plays the word jozxyqk in a game of Scrabble, claiming it to be a cat word meaning "the sound you get when you get your sexual organs trapped in something." However, this is most likely an attempt by Cat to use otherwise useless letters in a game he may well have been losing. Red Dwarf establishes that, in its fictional universe, the evolved Cat species does not have a written language, and instead records information as a scent. However it could be phonetically spelt.

A class of beings that makes recurring appearances in the programme is the GELF, an acronym for Genetically Engineered Life Forms. This term was also used in the unrelated American series SeaQuest DSV (Deep Sea Voyager), which aired for three seasons in the early 1990s.

The Red Dwarf crew's weapon of choice is the bazookoid. This is in actual fact a piece of mining equipment, and not officially a weapon. Obviously derived from the word bazooka.

Otrazone is a dangerous and highly addictive drug in a liquid form that corrupts circuitboards in mechanoids. Able tried to convince Kryten in trying some Otrazone in "Beyond A Joke", but he refused.

A Negadrive is a drive that is used in mechanoids to store negative emotions. Eventually, this drive blows when its negativity reaches its maximum.

A simulant is a mechanoid that despises humans. They were created for war that never existed, and still are floating around the unknown parts of space. The Red Dwarf crew occasionally run into simulants.

Quagaar is the name of the species in which Rimmer believes will make him a real body, in the episode "Waiting for God" (series 1 episode 4). It turns out that the Quagaars never existed, the pod that he believed they resided in was actually a Red Dwarf garbage pod.

Several sets, seen often in the earlier episodes, have the phrase "Level Nivelo" prominently displayed on one wall. Nivelo is not an invented word within the series, but rather the Esperanto word for level. In the Red Dwarf universe, the constructed language Esperanto is in much wider use than it is today, and Red Dwarf is officially a bilingual vessel. See the first episode in season two, "Kryten", in which Rimmer attempts to learn Esperanto. In fact, all the Esperanto used in Red Dwarf is correct^{[citation needed]}, if sometimes poorly pronounced - and in the books, incorrectly spelt or mis-printed.

In the episode "Back To Reality", Timothy Spall's character Andy refers to the regular cast as "a bunch of twonks". Twonk is also used by Del Boy in Only Fools and Horses. He often calls Rodney a "dozy little twonk". "Twonk" has been around for a while is used by Frederick R. Ewing in the 1956 novel I, Libertine. The character Lance Courtney refers comedically to the acne in another character as being "Twonk's disease".

In the Series 5 episode "The Inquisitor", Kryten refers to a statement made by Lister as "complete and utter shash", leaving the viewer to assume that shash is synonymous with nonsense. This word however seems not to make any other appearances. Holly also uses the word Hotspur to mean nonsense ("Queeg") - a reference to the London football team Tottenham Hotspur, as evidenced by the line "That's a load of Tottenham that is, that's a steaming pile of Hotspur".

Whilst on his own for three million years, Red Dwarf's computer, Holly, decided to entertain himself by inventing Hol Rock, a fictional decimalised version of music. The notes he invented were 'H' and 'J' (or woh and boh) and he was convinced it would be a whole new sound. Unfortunately triangles would need an extra side, pianos would be the length of zebra crossings and women would be banned from playing the cello.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Invented words", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki