Croggle

To croggle is to amaze and awe or discombobulate and confound or to become so. Croggled describes the resulting state of mind.

Origins

The term was invented and developed in the course of the WO3W correspondence between United States fans Dean Grennell, Redd Boggs and Robert Silverberg circa late 1940s or early 1950s.

Its precise etymology and definition then was disputed. Dick Eney's Fancyclopedia II states that croggle combines the words crush and goggle, although Grennell said it is a combination of crumble and joggle. Eney implied it is a noun, one which describes the state of having been "shocked into momentary physical or mental paralysis".

Harry Warner, Jr., on the other hand, in his A Wealth of Fable (first version published 1976, but bear in mind Warner's career in fandom began much earlier than Eney's) declared croggle "is normally a verb signifying intense disturbance of a subjective nature."

Silverberg later recalled that it was comprised of crush and "boggle, not goggle."

From Fancyclopedia 2, ca. 1959

(Grennell) Roughly meaning shocked into momentary physical or mental paralysis; a portmanteau-word, apparently, combining "crushed" and "goggled", and usually passive or reflexive in application.

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Fanspeak

1950s—

This is a fanspeak page. Please extend it by adding information about when and by whom it was coined, whether it’s still in use, etc.