Zorkmid

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A unit of currency used in the fictional world of the Zork video game series, the basic medium of exchange there
2. The imaginary money of the Zork adventure games, a monetary unit used by characters in that fictional setting
3. A fictional currency from the classic Zork interactive fiction games, used as the standard unit of trade in their world

Etymology: Zorkmid is the currency of the fictional Great Underground Empire in the text adventure game Zork, first released in 1980. The game's developers at MIT invented the name as a playful coinage, and it was the in-game money that players collected from treasures, lamps and other loot in the underground world. Its appeal lies in how a made-up unit of currency, coined purely for a game, has been passed around by fans and borrowed into general use as a joking name for money in other fantasy settings. Because the word was deliberately invented rather than inherited, it has no older history to trace. Its form follows the sound-pattern of familiar fantasy coinages, with "zork" serving as the game's own nonsense-word brand and "-mid" added to give it the ring of a coin name.