'It's a Perfectly Cromulent Word'

“Perhaps you know this word, but I didn’t: ‘cromulent.’ I've seen examples of it used to describe players of different sports.” So writes a friend. The word was new to me, so I went to the OED for the definition: “acceptable, adequate, satisfactory.” Not unlike “a gentleman’s C.” You pass but without distinction, like most American presidents. More interesting is the adjective’s extra-literary origin: “frequently used humorously or ironically in recognition of its origin as an invented word in the television programme The Simpsons.” Here is the pertinent dialogue from the 1996 episode: “[Mrs. Krabappel] Embiggens? Hm, I never heard that word before I moved to Springfield. [Ms. Hoover] I don’t know why. It’s a perfectly cromulent word.” The word sounds authentic, a little old-fashioned and stuffy, perhaps Johnsonian. That’s the key to lastingly successful coinage. Forty years ago a fellow reporter and I working for a newspaper in Indiana challenged each other to work arcane words into…