The * makes the word a sound. So to write creepy would be itself while *creepy* would be the sound. The sound is a grunt alluding to the movie Orange County. Jack Black uses it when his father tells him and others that they "Came together" the night before. He precedes with a intrigued yet slightly erotic grunt. I had to make a word for it to express it during AIM, or Instant Messages, over the Internet. I came up with *creepy*.

Briefly, "the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own." Originally from the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, which has a lot more beautiful neologism definitions like this you might enjoy.