When in Need of the Right Word, Great Writers Simply Make Them Up
Ralph Keyes's Literary Hub essay on writers' coinages, including Mailer's 'fug' and 'factoid.' An about-Mailer clipping.
Ralph Keyes. “When in Need of the Right Word, Great Writers Simply Make Them Up.” Literary Hub, 15 March 2021. https://lithub.com/when-in-need-of-the-right-word-great-writers-simply-make-them-up/
On writers who coin words, with Mailer a central example: “fug,” the bowdlerism forced on The Naked and the Dead, and “factoid,” which he minted in Marilyn (1973) and which has since drifted to the opposite of his meaning.