Dodge is known for producing many things, most notably cars, minivans, and sometimes large, lingering clouds of tire smoke. Oh, and the K-Car. But one thing I didn't realize was that they're also in the word business, coining an extremely common word way back in the 1910s. That word? Come on, you know I'm gonna make you click for it.
That wasn't so bad, right? Sorry to do that, but, you know, I have old cars to maintain. Okay, here's the word that didn't exist before some Dodge PR guy came up with it:
Dependability.
Holy crap, right? That seems like an entirely normal, common word. I mean, if you told me that the Frito-Lay company was behind the word "snackatunity" (as in an opportunity for snacking) I don't think I'd be that shocked. But "dependability?" You'd think that'd have been around forever.
Well, the word "dependable" certainly had been, but the actual transformation of the word into a noun via the addition of the "-ility" suffix seems to have been the invention of Theodore McManus, a Dodge PR flack of that era. This adjective-to-noun conversion is actually a known advertising trick now, called anthimeria.
Dodge was using the term in advertising from around 1914, and by the 1930s, the word was appearing in dictionaries, and soon found its way into common, everyday usage.
Now Dodge's current PR people need to coin a word that encapsulates the ideas of excitement and stupidity that comes from making a 707 HP family car.