> 1: “It’s morbin time”

The informal spoken phrase “It’s morbin time”[1] comes from the hit movie Morbius (2022), starring Jared Letto as Michael Morbius. Morbius commences his morbatious activities by announcing “It’s morbin time” to his audience of Marvel comic morbs. The announcement is used to reduce the distance between Morbius and the audience and promote linguistic innovation in an informal manner. Morbius reduces social distance, and promotes linguistic innovation through the use of semantical ambiguity and elision as a means of associating his speech with the non-standard mannerisms of his audience.

The meaning of the neologism “morbin”[1] / mɑrbɪn /, introduced by Morbius in the phrase “it’s morbin time”[1] is left ambiguous, and the audience is left to interpret this as a means of promoting linguistic innovation. The root word “morb” / mɑrb / is assumed to be derived from the character’s name “[Morb]ius”, as a linked association with the characters persona and morbatious doings throughout the screenplay. The use of the “in” / ɪn / suffix in contrary to the standard “ing” / ŋ / increases the informal register, as the lazy non-standard elision of [n] phonologically derived from a cluster /ng/ from [ŋ] to /g/ in / mɑrbɪn /, is typical of the linguistically superior intellect of the audience. Which also decreases social distance. The phonological alteration of the presumed standardisation “morbing” to “morbin” could also be argued to be a diminutive expressing Morbius’ endearment of his morbatious character and demeanour.