A teratonym ("monstrous word") is a word that is intentionally almost or completely unpronounceable, or which is alien (or monstrous) in the context of the language that it is being used in.
It appears to be a recent coinage and is not widely used, but occurs in some academic literature concerning the works of the early-20th-century horror author, H. P. Lovecraft. Names in Lovecraft's work, such as the famous "Cthulhu", or phrases such as "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn", are teratonyms, intended to represent human attempts to speak words that are from a completely inhuman language.
It is possible that C. L. Robinson originally coined this word (see below).
Comments by chrisatthestudy
chrisatthestudy commented on the word teratonym
A teratonym ("monstrous word") is a word that is intentionally almost or completely unpronounceable, or which is alien (or monstrous) in the context of the language that it is being used in.
It appears to be a recent coinage and is not widely used, but occurs in some academic literature concerning the works of the early-20th-century horror author, H. P. Lovecraft. Names in Lovecraft's work, such as the famous "Cthulhu", or phrases such as "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn", are teratonyms, intended to represent human attempts to speak words that are from a completely inhuman language.
It is possible that C. L. Robinson originally coined this word (see below).
Citations:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/49137350_Teratonymy_The_Weird_and_Monstrous_Names_of_HP_Lovecraft
Teratonymy: The Weird and Monstrous Names of H P Lovecraft
- C. L. Robinson
https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.03429v1
Simulating H.P. Lovecraft horror literature with the ChatGPT large language model (see esp. section 4.2 which reference to 'use of teratonyms')
- Eduardo C. Garrido-Merchán, José Luis Arroyo-Barrigüete, Roberto Gozalo-Brihuela
June 30, 2023