Celebrating word making: Buckminster Fuller’s take on sunrise and sunset

Buckminster Fuller — that American polymath — (an individual of comprehensive learning in several fields) — (which makes me unimathless . . .) — Buckminster Fuller enjoyed coining words to better suit our modern understanding.

For example, he felt the words sunrise and sunset were impossibly dated. They harked back to when we thought the sun moved around the Earth, rising in the morning and setting in the evening.

Fuller felt these archaic meanings impaired our grasp of how things really worked . . . and so set out to replace them.

What we’re celebrating today is how Buckminster Fuller coined two replacement terms that were not only scientifically accurate but also — improbably — imbued with poetry.

Sunsight.

Sunclipse.

What E.E. Cummings could do with those words! He could trip the day away between them.

What we could all do with new terminology like this.

There must have been a moonsight and a starclipse too!

Let’s take it upon ourselves to enlighten our minds while speaking new words that speak to new truths.

These two Fullerisms didn’t take of course, or else you’d be uttering them near-daily and there’d be no call for this piece. You’d be ho-humming politely while checking your social media mentions.

But other words have. From other sources:

Equality

Conscious living

Mindfulness

Personal space

Soulmate

Forever friend

Grok

Freethinker

Internet

New words arise, giving us new insights into the world.

Possibilities abound . . .

Eyebright (those alive in the moment)

Hunkerdown (when you need some time alone)

Lipsong (when you speak about what you love)

Your turn. Get jiggy with it.