"It would be remiss to discuss David Foster Wallace and language without mentioning the words that Wallace himself conceived and introduced to the public; or, more accurately, the words his mother conceived. Sally Wallace, a distinguished English professor all her own, made up words or phrases for David and his sister when there were none in the English language to describe what she was thinking. These words never left Wallace and he included them in Infinite Jest and The Pale King, delighting and confusing readers in equal measure. Among the most well-known of these is the phrase the howling fantods, which refers to an intense feeling of fear of or repulsion for something. This is an extension of the original meaning of fantods as “a state of uneasiness or unreasonableness”. While Wallace did not coin the phrase entirely, as the term fantods already had a similar meaning, Wallace took the word and made it his own; indeed, the phrase “the howling fantods” is perhaps the closest thing Wallace has to a catchphrase. Ironically, Wallace often used this phrase to describe members of the main characters’ family in Infinite Jest: one of the members of the fictional “Incandenza” family featured in the novel refuses to go to parts of the Boston Metro infested with bugs because roaches “give him the howling fantods”. Another such word used by the Wallaces was greebles, meaning little pieces of lint or tissue. For example, in Wallace’s unfinished final novel The Pale King, one character tries to use toilet paper to try to dry an outbreak of sweat  “without the toilet paper disintegrating into little greebles and blobs all over his forehead”. While these words and phrases are difficult to find used beyond the context of Wallace’s works and life, their popularity and usage among fans of Wallace is a testament to his (and his mother’s!) passionate love for language." - ((°}