Eliot Coined Several Words

Through the course of her writing career, George Eliot created several terms that are still in use today. She was the first, for example, to use the term "browser" in the contemporary meaning of someone who is idly glancing about (like a browser in a bookstore). The term "browser" once meant "an animal that seeks twigs to eat," which is an intriguing detail about George Eliot. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a browser as "a person who removes the leaves and twigs of trees to use as nourishment for animals in winter" in the 16th century. In the future, it came to refer to an animal that sought out leaves and branches to feed. The phrase was originally used to refer to a person broadly observing something in George Eliot's historical novel Romola. She refers to a number of Bartolomeo Scala's pals as "amiable browsers in the Medicean park" in the passage.

Floppy, lampshade, noon, pop, and self-criticism are just a few of the other terms Eliot created. In fact, Eliot was able to make contributions to both the English language and our literature.