Gremlins

I saw the movie Gremlins when I was a kid, probably when I was about 9 years old. It set my young imagination on fire, as mogwai—cute little furry critters that were intelligent and friendly—transformed into mean, green monsters if you fed them after midnight.

Every kid wanted a gremlin or a mogwai of their own, and there were plenty of toy versions. The cultural impact was immense, and the word “gremlin” started to enter the lexicon of the typical 80s American kid. It’s hard to explain how hard it was to get away from all things Gremlins for a while.

dackelprincess on flickr

The word gremlin wasn’t invented for the movie, though. Instead, Royal Air Force pilots stationed in Malta, the Middle East, and India seem to be the culprits. One origin story has it that the word "goblin" blended with the name of a beer the RAF pilots drank called Fremlin.

A more common word origin story is that gremlin comes from the Old English word "gremian," which means "to vex". Either way, some time during t…