No. Right? Frounceen is not a word. We can say that pretty confidently, right? Never heard it before. Doesn’t look like a real word. Seems like it could be a way somebody teased a sad Francine. But definitely not a word. Right?
Sometimes words like this pop up in editing projects where we as editors are so confident it is not a word, but for some reason, the word is in the document multiple times. We’re talking nearly every page. Of a cookbook. I was working on this particular cookbook with a group of editors, and we all began to question ourselves. What did that word mean? Could we all be wrong? Is it a jargon cooking term like julienne?
Then we figured it out.
In the cookbook, certain ingredients were measured in ounces, but the text had said “oz” instead of the spelled out “ounce.” A previous editor had done a search and replace to change all instances of “oz” to “ounce.” But there was one problem: “oz” should have been ” oz ” with spaces surrounding it. Unfortunately, every instance of “frozen” became “frounceen.” Frounceen carrots, frounceen peas, frounceen treats of all kinds. It was a lesson to us to be incredibly careful when performing a search and replace while editing. Also, a second look at a document is always a good idea.
In the end, frounceen was proven to not be a true word. But maybe if we use it as slang somehow, we can get it in the dictionary.
Holly Hawk Editing 