The Prantics of a Word Geek

I'm a word geek. I totally admit it. In high school I wrote an essay on Orthography - the history of spelling.

One fascinating word fact is that Shakespeare reportedly invented (or used in writing for the first time) about 1700 words. Some words he is credited with inventing are amazement, assassination, employer, eventful, flowery and sanctimonious.

And of course Shakespeare was not the only one to add words to the language. There are many examples over time.

What is clear is that our language would be a lot poorer if not for the willingness of writers throughout the ages to take chances with words and use them in new and exciting ways.

I bring all this up in order to lay claim to a word I invented way back in 6th grade. At the time I was simply told that although it was a good word, it wasn't a real word. Now I say, who is to say it isn't a real word? If Shakespeare could invent words, so can I.

The word in question was "prantics". As in: The prantics of the young children became a source of annoyance to the teacher.

Prantics, in case you can't tell by the context is a combination of the words pranks and antics.

I think the world is ready for a word like this. Just remember, you saw it here first.