An unfinished manuscript by Theodore Geisel, better known to children for generations as Dr Seuss, has recently been sold at auction and there’s excitement that it will add a new word to dictionaries.
The manuscript, All Sorts of Sports, introduces the word “blumf” to the world. The book follows athlete Pete who at one point exclains “There are so many sports, let’s see… I could bowl, jump hurdles, or water ski. I could blumf. Or blumf blumf blumf blumf blumf. ”
Some have said that “blumf” was just a placeholder piece of text until Geisel thought of something better to add. Over at the Hot Word they’re running a thread about what the word means with most leaning towards the placeholder.
Some commenters have taken up the challenge, like Mark Lagunzad who wrote “Blumf it’s an individual sport where a blumfer named Blumf E. Blumf blumfs you the blumf.” Smoothius got poetic with: “To play blumf you most blort and sprankle being careful not to twist your ankle”