Presticogitation

The word presticogitation—"rapid mental processing that commands compliance because of its speed and beauty"— was coined by James Vanden Bosch of Calvin College circa 1986. Its first known appearance in print was in Spark in 1988.

(Appearances in 1993 and undated appearances elsewhere [1-2-3-4] appear to be independent but subsequent to Vanden Bosch's coinage.)

In 2005, syndicated columnist Dale Dauten wrote a column on Vanden Bosch's campaign, which prompted the Double-Tongued Word Wrester website to list a citation on presticogitation.

I first heard the word as a student in Vanden Bosch's "History of the English Language" class in 2001. I first blogged about it in late 2002 and mid-2003.

In February 2006, I wrote about presticogitation in my "On Language" column in the Chicago Tribune. The full text of this article is now available.

Also see a follow-up blog post by another former Vanden Bosch student.

And listen to my interview with Vanden Bosch about presticogitation.