Can you invent a new word

Can you invent a word?

A lot of us make up new words. They’re called neologisms and coinages. Making up new words is fun, creative, and—especially when that word addresses a gap in the language—an extremely useful thing to do. The dictionary only includes words that have a specific meaning many people can agree on.”

What is a neologism word?

1 : a new word, usage, or expression technological neologisms. 2 psychology : a new word that is coined especially by a person affected with schizophrenia and is meaningless except to the coiner, and is typically a combination of two existing words or a shortening or distortion of an existing word.

What word did not exist 100 years ago?

50 words that didn’t exist 100 years ago

• Twerking.
• Googling.
• Miniskirt.
• Greenwashing.
• Hater.
• Networking.
• Microfibre.
• IVF.

What word did not exist 20 years ago?

Here are 14 commonly used words that didn’t even exist a generation ago.

• 1) Blog. Everyone has a blog these days, and it’s kind of been that way since about 1999 — the same year “weblog” was shortened to blog by Peter Merholz as a joke.
• 7) Omnishambles.
• Paywall.
• 9) Muggle.
• 13) Locavore.

How new words are coined?

The commonest method of creating a new word is to add a prefix or suffix to an existing one. Hence realisation (1610s), democratise (1798), detonator (1822), preteen (1926), hyperlink (1987) and monogamish (2011). The inverse of the above: the creation of a new root word by the removal of a phantom affix.

What are the four words that have entered our language in the last hundred years?

Here are 20 English words which entered the language in 1918 and have stayed with us changed or unchanged 100 years down the line:

• Devalue: When there is war, there must be massive financial losses.
• Mass graves:
• Welfare:
• Friendly fire:
• Queued:
• Interview:
• Breakthrough:
• Stormtrooper:

What are the examples of blended words?

What are blended words?

What does centenary mean in English?

Two words. One hundred years. Centenary is the older word in English, having derived directly from the Latin word centenarium in the 15th century.

What is Diamond birthday?

A diamond jubilee celebrates the 60th anniversary of a significant event related to a person (e.g. accession to the throne, wedding, etc.) or the 60th anniversary of an institution’s founding. The term is also used for 75th anniversaries, although the human lifespan makes this usage more common for institutions.

Is 40 really the new 30?

Women in their 40s are looking and feeling better than ever! Life no longer starts going downhill the second we hit that magic number. Instead, we live in a time where life can actually begin for women at 40! Forty really is the new 30.

How can I start my life at 40?

40 Life Changes You Should Make After 40

1. Stop pretending to enjoy things you actually hate.
2. And don’t be shy about the things you are into.
3. Learn a new language.
4. Become a world traveler.
5. Use all of your vacation days.
6. Reinvigorate your relationship with some flirting.
7. Wake up earlier.
8. Find a hobby.

What are made up words called?

The term neologism is first attested in English in 1772, borrowed from French néologisme (1734). The term neologism has a broader meaning which also includes “a word which has gained a new meaning”. Sometimes, the latter process is called semantic shifting, or semantic extension.

What is the first word starting with Star?

8-letter words that start with star

• starfish.
• stardust.
• starship.
• starling.
• stargaze.
• starkers.
• starwort.
• startups.

What are words that start with an A?

• aardvark.
• aardwolf.
• aasvogel.
• abacuses.
• abalones.
• abampere.
• abandons.
• abapical.

What is the suffix of star?

Synonyms, crossword answers and other related words for SUFFIX FOR “STAR” [let]

What are some words that start with C?

• cabalism.
• cabalist.
• caballed.
• cabarets.
• cabbaged.
• cabbages.
• cabbagey.
• cabbalah.

What is a positive word starting with C?

List of Positive Words That Start With C

What are 5 letter words starting with C?

5-letter words starting with C

What are some good C words?

Having a positive, can-do attitude makes you seem confident, cheerful, and capable….Positive Words That Have 8 Letters.

What are 6 letter words starting with C?

6-letter words starting with C

I would say that any word is a «real» word if it is in some sense established and those using it have a shared concept of what it means. Whether particular dictionaries decide or not to include that word is their problem; it doesn’t affect the reality or non-reality of that word. After all, the human species was speaking languages for thousands of years before the first dictionary was invented…

As for the question of on what criteria particular dictionaries decide to include words, this is really specific to the dictionary in question. In more technical dictionaries, or technical words in general dictionaries, it is usually a question of which words the consultant(s) decide ought to be included. For more general language, there’s often a sense that some number of clear, attributable examples must be available (so an example where it is clear that the word is in some kind of «mainstream» use, and where its meaning is clear from the context).

If you have coined/come across a word that is in some kind of «accepted» use and you think ought to be included in a particular dictionary, you could always contact its editors with your examples.

I’m a lexicographer. I make dictionaries. And my job as a lexicographer is to try to put all the words possible into the dictionary. My job is not to decide what a word is; that is your job.

0:25 Everybody who speaks English decides together what’s a word and what’s not a word. Every language is just a group of people who agree to understand each other. Now, sometimes when people are trying to decide whether a word is good or bad, they don’t really have a good reason. So they say something like, “Because grammar!” (Laughter) I don’t actually really care about grammar too much — don’t tell anybody.

0:51 But the word “grammar,” actually, there are two kinds of grammar. There’s the kind of grammar that lives inside your brain, and if you’re a native speaker of a language or a good speaker of a language, it’s the unconscious rules that you follow when you speak that language. And this is what you learn when you learn a language as a child. And here’s an example: This is a wug, right?

It’s a wug. Now there is another one. There are two of these. There are two … Audience: Wugs.

Erin McKean: Exactly! You know how to make the plural of wug. That rule lives in your brain. You never had to be taught this rule, you just understand it. This is an experiment that was invented by a professor at [Boston University] named Jean Berko Gleason back in 1958. So we’ve been talking about this for a long time.

1:36 Now, these kinds of natural rules that exist in your brain, they’re not like traffic laws, they’re more like laws of nature. And nobody has to remind you to obey a law of nature, right? When you leave the house in the morning, your mom doesn’t say, “Hey, honey, I think it’s going to be cold, take a hoodie, don’t forget to obey the law of gravity.” Nobody says this. Now, there are other rules that are more about manners than they are about nature. So you can think of a word as like a hat. Once you know how hats work, nobody has to tell you, “Don’t wear hats on your feet.” What they have to tell you is, “Can you wear hats inside? Who gets to wear a hat? What are the kinds of hats you get to wear?” Those are more of the second kind of grammar, which linguists often call usage, as opposed to grammar.

2:27 Now, sometimes people use this kind of rules-based grammar to discourage people from making up words. And I think that is, well, stupid. So, for example, people are always telling you, “Be creative, make new music, do art, invent things, science and technology.” But when it comes to words, they’re like,”Don’t! No. Creativity stops right here, whippersnappers. Give it a rest.” (Laughter) But that makes no sense to me. Words are great. We should have more of them. I want you to make as many new words as possible. And I’m going to tell you six ways that you can use to make new words in English.

3:06 The first way is the simplest way. Basically, steal them from other languages.

Linguists call this borrowing, but we never give the words back , so I’m just going to be honestand call it stealing. We usually take words for things that we like, like delicious food. We took “kumquat” from Chinese, we took “caramel” from French. We also take words for cool things like “ninja,” right? We took that from Japanese, which is kind of a cool trick because ninjas are hard to steal from. (Laughter)

3:38 So another way that you can make words in English is by squishing two other English words together. This is called compounding. Words in English are like Lego: If you use enough force, you can put any two of them together. (Laughter) We do this all the time in English: Words like “heartbroken,” “bookworm,” “sandcastle” all are compounds. So go ahead and make words like “duckface,” just don’t make duckface. (Laughter)

4:06 Another way that you can make words in English is kind of like compounding, but instead you use so much force when you squish the words together that some parts fall off. So these are blend words, like “brunch” is a blend of “breakfast” and “lunch.” “Motel” is a blend of “motor” and “hotel.” Who here knew that “motel” was a blend word? Yeah, that word is so old in English that lots of people don’t know that there are parts missing. “Edutainment” is a blend of “education” and “entertainment.” And of course, “electrocute” is a blend of “electric” and “execute.”

4:45 You can also make words by changing how they operate. This is called functional shift. You take a word that acts as one part of speech, and you change it into another part of speech. Okay, who here knew that “friend” hasn’t always been a verb? “Friend” used to be noun and then we verbed it. Almost any word in English can be verbed. You can also take adjectives and make them into nouns. “Commercial” used to be an adjective and now it’s a noun. And of course, you can “green” things.

5:16 Another way to make words in English is back-formation. You can take a word and you can kind of squish it down a little bit. So for example, in English we had the word “editor” before we had the word “edit.””Edit” was formed from “editor.” Sometimes these back-formations sound a little silly: Bulldozers bulldoze, butlers butle and burglers burgle. (Laughter)

5:38 Another way to make words in English is to take the first letters of something and squish them together. So National Aeronautics and Space Administration becomes NASA. And of course you can do this with anything, OMG!

5:49 So it doesn’t matter how silly the words are. They can be really good words of English. “Absquatulate” is a perfectly good word of English. “Mugwump” is a perfectly good word of English. So the words don’t have have to sound normal, they can sound really silly.

6:09 Why should you make words? You should make words because every word is a chance to express your idea and get your meaning across. And new words grab people’s attention. They get people to focus on what you’re saying and that gives you a better chance to get your meaning across. A lot of people on this stage today have said, “In the future, you can do this, you can help with this, you can help us explore, you can help us invent.” You can make a new word right now. English has no age limit. Go ahead, start making words today, send them to me, and I will put them in my online dictionary, Wordnik. Thank you so much. (Applause)