A word invented by ‘The Simpsons’ has been added to the dictionary

A made-up word fromThe Simpsons has been officially recognised by one of the biggest online dictionaries.

Dictionary.com recently announced that it would be adding “embiggen” to its website, along with 600 other new words, despite the word originating as a joke in a 1996 episode of the sitcom.

In the episode “Lisa the Iconoclast”, teacher Edna Krabappel comments on the Springfield town motto - “A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man” - by noting that she had never heard the word embiggen before moving to the area.

A fellow teacher, Miss Hoover, replies with another made-up phrase: “I don’t know why; it’s a perfectly cromulent word.”

You can find the clip below:

The two words were created by the show’s writers after they were asked to make up two words for the scene which sounded real but were not...

In the show, embiggen means to make or become bigger, while cromulent means acceptable or correct.

Due to the popularity of the episode, both words have quietly crept into general language - usually in a mocking or satirical context.

And although cromulent has not yet been officially recognised in a major dictionary, a recent blog post by Merriam-Webster suggested it could potentially be considered in the future.

The decision to add embiggen to Dictionary.com has sparked some criticism from people who would like to keep memes out of the dictionary:

But mainly it’s just led to the obvious response…

As one user noted, hopefully, we’ll be able to see other classic phrases from the show added to the dictionary in the near future:

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