Warren G. Harding, shown here with his wife, Florence Kling DeWolfe, is credited with coining the words "normalcy" and "bloviate."
Franklin D. Roosevelt (holding the baseball), came up with the word "iffy," Dickson says in his book.
Photo: Anonymous, AP
We have to wonder what FDR would have thought of Barack Obama's new word: "snowmageddon."
Photo: JIM WATSON, AFP/Getty Images
The New York Times quotes a Dickson report that media coverage of Dwight Eisenhower's golf outings led to the popularization of the word "mulligan," a free second chance in a golf game.
Photo: HENRY BURROUGHS, AP
It would be difficult to criticize a president's term of office without the word "administration." We can thank George Washington for that word, Dickson says.
Photo: Anonymous, Associated Press
John Quincy Adams gets credit for "gag rule."
Photo: Anonymous, ASSOCIATED PRESS
John Adams (not to be confused with John Quincy Adams) coined the term "caucus" and was the first person to write down the word "bobolink," a type of bird, Dickson said.
The word "squatter" existed before James Madison used it, Dickson says, but he was the first person to use it in reference to a person taking over someone else's property.
Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Theodore Roosevelt was an active wordsmith, giving us "bully pulpit," "mollycoddle" and "lunatic fringe."
Abraham Lincoln is remembered for many things, but not usually for the creation of the word "relocate."
Photo: Alexander Gardner, Getty Images
George W. Bush made so many linguistic errors, he inspired a new category of words and phrases called "Bushisms," which included the newly-invented word "misunderestimate," born on Nov. 6, 2000.
Photo: Haraz N. Ghanbari, AP
George H. W. Bush, shown here running for vice president with Ronald Reagan, took Reagan to task before he was selected as the other man's running mate. Bush is credited with coining the term "voodoo economics," in reference to Reagan's economic policy.
Photo: Joe Kennedy, McClatchy-Tribune News Service
Sure, anyone can make up words, but it takes a lot of work to get your word in the dictionary. Unless, of course, you're the leader of the free world.
It seems that presidents of the United States often find themselves in situations in which no existing English word will work, and are then forced to coin their own terms, from "gag rule" and "bloviate" to "lunatic fringe" and "snowmageddon."
It's all evidenced by the meticulous research of Paul Dickson, whose book, "Words from the White House: Words or Phrases Coined or Popularized by America's Presidents," will be discussed in a National Press Club presentation on Tuesday.
If you think a book about word origins can't be entertaining, think again. Remember how George W. Bush was criticized for his word choices? Turns out, other presidents faced similar obstacles in their word-coining paths, Dickson says in his introduction.
"Franklin D. Roosevelt's lexical critics lookd down their noses on his willingness to use street slang (chiseler for swindler) and for creations such as 'iffy.' President Eisenhower was castigated for his reliance on words that were common in the military."
He also provides a fascinating list of presidential "firsts" (did you know that Bill Clinton was the first president to have an e-mail address?) before delving into an alphabetical list of words and where they came from.
Click through the slideshow for a few examples from Dickson's promotional materials.