What is Flutternoia?

December 27th, 2006

While I was getting my BA in English, I had a wonderful English Professor named Dr. Cori Wells. What a wonderful teacher and person.

She presented the class an assignment called Neologism essays. The goal was to make up a word and give the meaning behind how the word came of being and form a definition.

My word was Flutternoia. Unfortunately, I do not know where my essay went. I think it was lost on my back up floppy disk (yes, floppy disk!).

I do remember how I discovered my word. It was after a summer spent in Israel where I taught Israeli students the English language and just the pure adrenaline of living in Israel. It was also around the time of many bus bombings occurring so the combination of everything brought slight paranoia.

Flutternoia came of being from the flutter of butterflies wings you may feel in your stomach from an adrenaline rush with the paranoia that can occur for a split second.

I now use this assignment in my own English classes and am always amazed with the words that my students discover.

Tags: education, experiences, feelings, Israel
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