U.S. presidents have invented many of the political—and everyday—words we take for granted today.

New words are coined all the time, but the processes for creating them have been used for centuries.

New words are not always treated with respect, whether or not we respect their inventors.

From George Washington’s first presidential “administration” to Donald Trump’s promises to cut taxes “bigly,” U.S. presidents have played a big role in shaping the direction of the country, including the words we use to talk about everything from national politics to everyday objects and actions.

Words From Washington—The Person and the Place

George Washington was not just the first U.S. president. He was also the first to use the term “administration” to apply to a president’s term in office, and an early user of the more pedestrian word “indoors.”

An even more prolific inventor of new words was Thomas Jefferson; he’s credited with more than a hundred new terms, including “electioneering,” “indecipherable,” “odometer,” and “belittle.”

Other Presidents also left an enduring mark: John Adams gave us “caucus”; from John Quincy Adams we get “gag rule”; and from Zachary Taylor we have “First Lady.”

Even the term “founding father” itself was coined by a president, though it was Warren G. Harding, in the early 1920s, not one of the founding fathers. Harding, a prolific talker, also popularized the word “bloviate”........

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