Defining Words As linguist Ray Jackendoff explains, “What makes a word a word is that it is a pairing between a pronounceable piece of sound and a meaning” (A User’s Guide to Thought and Meaning, 2012).
Contents
- 1 How does a word become a word?
- 2 What classifies a word?
- 3 Can anything be a word?
- 4 Does a word have to be in the dictionary to be a word?
- 5 Who decides a word?
- 6 How do you create a word?
- 7 How do you classify a word?
- 8 Why do we need to define a word?
- 9 Is Sploot a real word?
- 10 What is the meaning of word?
- 11 Which three criteria have been mentioned for saying something is a word?
- 12 Who created the word anything?
- 13 Is YEET a real word?
- 14 What is the oldest swear word?
- 15 Has YEET been added to dictionary?
- 16 What is the longest word in the world?
- 17 What is the shortest word in the dictionary?
- 18 What word was added to the dictionary in 2020?
- 19 Can you make up words for a book?
- 20 How do I make a good word document?
How does a word become a word?
For a word to get into the dictionary, two main things must happen: It has to be in widespread use among a group of people. This means a lot of people are using the word and agree upon what it means, whether it’s spoken or in writing. That word has to have staying power.
What classifies a word?
In linguistics, a word of a spoken language can be defined as the smallest sequence of phonemes that can be uttered in isolation with objective or practical meaning.
Can anything be a word?
“Anything” (one word) is a pronoun that means a thing of any kind (i.e., a thing, no matter what it is). Examples of “anything” in sentences: Positive anything is better than negative nothing.
Does a word have to be in the dictionary to be a word?
A word gets into a dictionary when it is used by many people who all agree that it means the same thing. If your toddler nephew invented a great word that the English language simply can’t do without, don’t write to us to recommend that it be added to the dictionary.
Who decides a word?
To decide which words to include in the dictionary and to determine what they mean, Merriam-Webster editors study the language as it’s used. They carefully monitor which words people use most often and how they use them.
How do you create a word?
Take 26 pieces of paper and write down one letter of the alphabet on each piece of paper; all twenty-six letters of it. Now close your eyes and point to five different letters. If you want a longer word, point to more than five letters. Make sure you have some vowels.
How do you classify a word?
The most common way to classify words is by their parts of speech. Traditional English grammar classifies words based on eight parts of speech: noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction and interjection.
Why do we need to define a word?
But why is a definition so important? Because definitions enable us to have a common understanding of a word or subject; they allow us to all be on the same page when discussing or reading about an issue.
Is Sploot a real word?
Sploot is slang for the pose an animal, especially dogs, cats, and other four-legged pets, makes when it lies on its stomach with its hind legs stretched out back and flat. The term is especially associated with Welsh corgis and is used affectionately in the internet slang of DoggoLingo.
What is the meaning of word?
1 : a sound or combination of sounds that has meaning and is spoken by a human being. 2 : a written or printed letter or letters standing for a spoken word. 3 : a brief remark or conversation I’d like a word with you.
Which three criteria have been mentioned for saying something is a word?
We use a combination of three criteria for determining the word class of a word:
- The meaning of the word.
- The form or `shape’ of the word.
- The position or `environment’ of the word in a sentence.
Who created the word anything?
any (adj., pron.) “one, a or an, some,” Old English ænig (adjective, pronoun) “any, anyone,” literally “one-y,” from Proto-Germanic *ainagas (source also of Old Saxon enig, Old Norse. As a noun, late 12c.; as an adverb, “in any degree,” c.
Is YEET a real word?
Yeet, defined as an “indication of surprise or excitement,” was voted the American Dialect Society’s 2018 Slang/Informal Word of the Year.
What is the oldest swear word?
Fart, as it turns out, is one of the oldest rude words we have in the language: Its first record pops up in roughly 1250, meaning that if you were to travel 800 years back in time just to let one rip, everyone would at least be able to agree upon what that should be called.
Has YEET been added to dictionary?
Dictionary.com has added over 300 new words and definitions, including “yeet” and “oof,” which reflect the changing world.”The latest update to our dictionary continues to mirror the world around us,” said John Kelly, Dictionary.com’s managing editor.
What is the longest word in the world?
pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
The longest word in any of the major English language dictionaries is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, a word that refers to a lung disease contracted from the inhalation of very fine silica particles, specifically from a volcano; medically, it is the same as silicosis.
What is the shortest word in the dictionary?
Actually, there are two shortest words in English, namely, A and I. Whereas the word “A” is an indefinite article, the word “I” is a personal subject pronoun. Again, whereas “A” is the first word in the English dictionary, “I” is the ninth word in the English dictionary.
What word was added to the dictionary in 2020?
Whatevs, simples, chillax, sumfin and Jafaican have been added to the Oxford English Dictionary. They are among 203 new words which appear in the dictionary for the very first time.
Can you make up words for a book?
Whether your characters misspeak or they deliberately create a new word—and whether it’s them as the character or you as the writer coining a new word—you can most assuredly use new words and non-words in your stories.You are allowed to make up words.
How do I make a good word document?
Here, we’ll show you how to format a Word document to make it look professional.
- Keep It Simple, Less Is More.
- Choose a Context-Appropriate Typeface.
- Use Standard Font Size and Color.
- Use Standard Page Size and Margins.
- Align Paragraphs to the Left.
- Indent the First Lines of Paragraphs.
- Place Images Between Paragraphs.
The English language is about 1,400 years old. One of the earliest-known English dictionaries, The Elementarie (1582), contained 8,000 words.
As of January 2020, English now includes more than one million words—a figure that differs from words accepted in dictionaries, which can range from 170,000 to 470,000 depending on the source.
Even if we discuss 470,000 formally accepted words, that still leaves more than a half million still wandering. Some might then wonder how one finds a home in a dictionary.
Always tracking and researching English usage, dictionary writers and editors stay busy adding new words and updating the meanings and applications of existing ones. For a word to be added to a dictionary on the gatekeepers’ watch, it must typically:
• be used across a wide area by many people who agree on its meaning
• establish that it has staying power.
As an example, someone in Oklahoma starts to use the word snote to describe a sneeze that sounds like a musical note.
The word begins to appear locally through e-mails, websites, social media, and television. From there, it moves into the mainstream reaching regional and national audiences, and before long, people are using the word on both coasts.
By this time, dictionary writers and editors have already noted the word, its sources, and its context in their databases. If the word continues to perpetuate and its meaning stands firm, they will consult with other colleagues to determine if snote to mean “a sneeze that sounds like a musical note” has achieved sufficient permanence; if so, they will add it to the dictionary.
If on the other hand the word begins to fizzle out as a trend, the word might still circulate, but it will not be formally validated. It could, however, be reviewed again in the future.
With those thoughts in mind, let’s look at some new words, existing words with added meanings, and words of varying ages that were still popular in recent decades but have since been petering out.
| New Word (part of speech, approx. first use) | New Meaning |
| bucket list (n., 2005–10) | a list of things a person wants to achieve or experience, as before reaching a certain age or dying |
| unfriend (v., 2005–10) | to remove a person from one’s list of friends or contacts on social media |
| hashtag (n., 2005–10) | a word or phrase preceded by a hash mark (#), used within a social-media message to identify a keyword or topic of interest and prompt a search for it |
| selfie (n., 2000–05) | a photograph taken with a mobile device by a person who is also in the photograph, especially for posting on social media |
| blogger (n., 1995–2000) | one who writes about topics, experiences, observations, or opinions, etc., on the Internet |
| Old Word | Added Meaning |
| mouse (n., before 900) | a hand-held device moved about on a flat surface to direct the cursor on a computer screen |
| browse (v., 1400–50) | to search for and read content on the Internet |
| cookie (n., 1695–1705) | a message or a segment of data containing information about a user, sent by a web server to a browser and sent back to the server each time the browser requests a web page |
| stream (v., 13th century) | to transfer digital data in a continuous stream, esp. for immediate processing or playback |
| tweet (n.,1768) | a post made on the Twitter online message service |
| Fading Word | Meaning |
| gal (n., 1785–95) | young woman |
| slacks (n., 1815–25) | trousers for casual wear |
| groovy (adj., 1937) | hip, trendy; marvelous, excellent |
| court (v., 1125–75) | to seek the affections of someone to establish a committed relationship |
| go steady (v., 1900) | to date someone exclusively |
| jalopy (n., 1928) | beat-up used vehicle |
What do you think—are there any words not yet in the dictionary that should be, or any now present that should be removed? Your input will be considered for a future article revisiting the relevance of words.
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- Is It Made Up Of A Series Of Spoken Sounds?
- What About The Words That We Have Trouble Pronouncing?
- Does It Have Some Sort Of Meaning?
- Does It Primarily Have Any Grammatical Importance?
- Can Anyone Make Up Words? How?
- So, How Does A Word Enter The Dictionary?
- What About The Words That Don’t Get Into The Dictionary?
- A Final ‘Word’
Linguists and researchers have made many attempts to define a “word”, without reaching a settled conclusion. Most definitions, however, agree that a word is capable of being spoken and written and it must carry some meaning. Any competent speaker of a language can manage to form new words by using some of these ground rules.
During the coronavirus crisis, many new words and phrases became part of our everyday vocabulary (‘social distancing’, ‘self-quarantine’ and ‘Covid-19’ itself). However, when a preschooler calls sanitizer ‘hanitizer’, we find it cute, but may not consider that a real word.
According to Global Language Monitor, in the English language, a new word is born every 98 minutes, about 14.7 per day, 5400 a year. Not all the new ones are added to the standard dictionaries, so does that mean they’re not real?
The question is…when does a word become a real word, and who makes that decision? Let’s find out!
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Is It Made Up Of A Series Of Spoken Sounds?
First, quickly scribble down a few letters on a piece of paper. Can you pronounce the string of sounds on its own? If yes, then you have just met the first requirement.
From a linguistic point of view, words are made up of different sounds (or phonemes). For instance, “cat” has three phonemes: /c/, /a/, and /t/. So, together it’s a “pronounceable phonological unit.” Here, the letter-sound c does not make sense on its own, nor do the other individual sounds. ‘Cat’ is a unit that is capable of being pronounced (with meaning) all by itself. So, this word falls in line with Bloomfield’s well-known definition of a ‘minimal free form’.
Also Read: How Did Silent Letters Come Into The English Language?
What About The Words That We Have Trouble Pronouncing?
I can never muster up the courage to pronounce “Freundschaftsbeziehungen”. Yes, that’s a real word, it means “friendship relations” in German. Or “pamplemousse”, which is French for grapefruit. Quite a mouthful, aren’t they? But it doesn’t mean that they aren’t real.
Of course, acquiring a foreign language can be difficult. Studies show that we are born with the natural ability to learn and master all the sounds used in all human languages of the world. Linguist Noam Chomsky believed that learning a language (yes, even the ones that seem so difficult to pronounce) is an innate skill that one develops from birth.
A word is real when it has a meaning in the lexicon (vocabulary or dictionary) of a language. This brings us to its next characteristic.
Also Read: Are Some Languages Easier To Learn Than Others?
Does It Have Some Sort Of Meaning?
A word (cats) or its parts (‘cat’ and ‘-s’) should have its own meaning (cat is the animal and –s is the letter for making it plural). Have you invented a new word for a place, person, a way of doing something or a way of describing something? You might have coined a lexical or content word. Nouns, verbs, and adjectives belong to this category.
For a word to be considered real, make sure you can clearly describe its meaning to other people.
Also note that while writing, we keep ‘cat’ separated by spaces from other words (one of its orthographic features). This is why the OED mentions that a word is “typically shown with a space on either side when written or printed”.
However, no definition appears to be set in stone. For example, the written form of Chinese doesn’t have spaces between words. Also, some words cannot be considered “minimal free forms” (e.g., for, and, but, with, it, on, yet) since they make no sense, when used on their own. What independent meaning do they have (what is the meaning of ‘the’)?
Does It Primarily Have Any Grammatical Importance?
Even if a word doesn’t seem to convey a lot of sense by itself, it can still be legitimate if it plays a grammatical role.
Some examples are auxiliary verbs (e.g., might, may, will, must), prepositions (e.g., in, at, on, of and to), articles (a, an, the), conjunctions (e.g., or, and, so, for, because, but, yet, as), and pronouns (e.g., he, she, you, we, her, him), which are grammatical or function words. They might not have a so-called “dictionary meaning”. But they can easily fit into larger units of phrases, clauses, and sentences.
Can Anyone Make Up Words? How?
Do you become hangry (angry when hungry) when you skip meals? I do.
‘Hangry’ is an example of a ‘portmanteau’—a fancy term for a word made by blending two or more words or their parts. “Brexit” is a portmanteau (Britain’s exit from the European Union), just as “breakfast” and “lunch” combine to yield “brunch.” The term portmanteau was first used by Lewis Carroll (best known for his ever-popular Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland). This is, however, just one of the mechanisms you can use to create words.
Some other processes of word formation include derivation (e.g., kind + -ness → kindness), back formation (‘examine” was formed by taking out the ”-ation” from ”examination.”), conversion (email – noun → to email – verb), compounding (jelly + -fish → jellyfish), abbreviation (Junior → Jr.) and borrowing (French café → “coffee”).
So, How Does A Word Enter The Dictionary?
Lexicon, then, plays a key role in our usage of language. Lexicographers are dictionary authors and editors who write or edit dictionaries. They decide which words will be added to the dictionary or removed from them by referring to lots of magazines, newspapers and other published materials.
For a word to be considered for inclusion in the dictionary, certain rules are followed by lexicographers, as pointed out on Dictionary.com.
A new entry might be accepted if it is:
- “…used by a lot of people.
- …used by those people in largely the same way.
- …likely to stick around.
- …useful for a general audience.”
Clearly, a child-invented word like ‘hanitizer’ would have to receive widespread acceptance and also last for at least several years to become “official”.
Also Read: Has The Internet Changed Languages Around The World?
What About The Words That Don’t Get Into The Dictionary?
Parents and children often make up nicknames to lovingly call each other (e.g., sweetums, bubby-doo, itty bitty). They may not have meaning for the general public, but they can mean a lot to the people using them.
Furthermore, prescriptive linguistics (the rules that show preferred usage of a language) come from institutions or people who may not have access to languages used by poor, marginalized and disadvantaged people, including indigenous communities.
Many endangered languages in the world have only a few speakers left. Busuu, a language of Cameroon, had just 3 speakers of the language in 2005, but now it is extinct. A dictionary may not include words from such less spoken and rare languages. You may also not find technical jargon, informal (slang) or dialect forms in a dictionary.
So obviously, just because a word does not get into the dictionary does not mean it is not a real word.
A Final ‘Word’
Defining a word is not a simple job, as linguists don’t agree on what constitutes a word. Still, the beautiful thing about a language is that it can always grow and thrive. This is how it will survive the winds of time. Institutions and experts recognize the needs of a language’s users, while setting the language standards for the future. Thus, the decisive powers remain with us, the people.
How well do you understand the article above!
Can you answer a few questions based on the article you just read?
- Aikhenvald, A. Y., Dixon, R. M. W., & White, N. M. (Eds.). (2020). Phonological Word and Grammatical Word. (A. Y. Aikhenvald, R. M. W. Dixon, & N. M. White, Eds.), []. Oxford University Press.
- How Does A Word Get Into The Dictionary?. Dictionary.com
- Passos, M. de L. R. da F., & Matos, M. A. (2007, October). The influence of Bloomfield’s linguistics on Skinner. The Behavior Analyst. Springer Science and Business Media LLC.
- Minimal free form definition and meaning — Collins Dictionary. The Collins Engl
- Ghasemi, B., & Hashemi, M. (2011). Foreign Language Learning During Childhood. Procedia — Social and Behavioral Sciences. Elsevier BV.
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There is no answer, or several.
First of all your «officially» is meaningless: there is no authority who can make this determination.
It is clear that there is a continuum from a nonce-word (that somebody made up and used once) to an ordinary word that everybody acknowledges as such. But there are various lines to be drawn within that.
Once a «word» has been used several times in print, (and not just quoting each other) it is almost certainly a word. In earlier ages there were plenty of words (for example, profanity) which never or hardly ever got written, because they were not regarded as «proper», but no sensible description of the language today would exclude them as words).
What of a «word» which is in general use among some particular group (for example, an occupation, or a social clique): is it a word? Probably yes, but some might disagree.
BTW, the dictionaries, including the OED, tend to react somewhat faster than you’re implying.
What Makes a Word a Word
Updated on November 01, 2019
According to conventional wisdom, a word is any group of letters that can be found in a dictionary. Which dictionary? Why, the Unidentified Authorizing Dictionary, of course:
‘Is it in the dictionary?’ is a formulation suggesting that there is a single lexical authority: «The Dictionary.» As the British academic Rosamund Moon has commented, «The dictionary most cited in such cases is the UAD: the Unidentified Authorizing Dictionary, usually referred to as ‘the dictionary,’ but very occasionally as ‘my dictionary.’
(Elizabeth Knowles, How to Read a Word. Oxford University Press, 2010)
To characterize this exaggerated regard for the authority of «the dictionary,» linguist John Algeo coined the term lexicographicolatry. (Try looking that up in your UAD.)
In fact, it may take several years before a highly functional word is formally recognized as a word by any dictionary:
For the Oxford English Dictionary, a neologism requires five years of solid evidence of use for admission. As the new-words editor Fiona McPherson once put it, «We need to be sure that a word has established a reasonable amount of longevity.» The editors of the Macquarie Dictionary write in the Introduction to the fourth edition that «to earn a place in the dictionary, a word has to prove that it has some acceptance. That is to say, it has to turn up a number of times in a number of different contexts over a period of time.»
(Kate Burridge, Gift of the Gob: Morsels of English Language History. HarperCollins Australia, 2011)
So if a word’s status as a word doesn’t depend on its immediate appearance in «the dictionary,» what does it depend on?
Defining Words
As linguist Ray Jackendoff explains, «What makes a word a word is that it is a pairing between a pronounceable piece of sound and a meaning» (A User’s Guide to Thought and Meaning, 2012). Put another way, the difference between a word and an unintelligible sequence of sounds or letters is that—to some people, at least—a word makes some sort of sense.
If you’d prefer a more expansive answer, consider Stephen Mulhall’s reading of Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations (1953):
[W]hat makes a word a word is not its individual correspondence with an object, or the existence of a technique of its use considered in isolation, or its contrasts with other words, or its suitability as one component of a menu of sentences and speech-acts; it depends in the last analysis upon its taking its place as one element in one of the countless kinds of ways in which creatures like us say and do things with words. Inside that unsurveyable complex context, individual words function without let or hindrance, their ties to specific objects without question; but outside it, they are nothing but breath and ink…
(Inheritance and Originality: Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Kierkegaard. Oxford University Press, 2001)
Or as Virginia Woolf put it:
[Words] are the wildest, freest, most irresponsible, most un-teachable of all things. Of course, you can catch them and sort them and place them in alphabetical order in dictionaries. But words do not live in dictionaries; they live in the mind.
How to term those words which are not by default English but are added over time?
Consider for example Google. Is it an English word now? Or is it just a usage?
Answer
Use of the word “google” to mean “perform an Internet-based search (for)” is an example of genericization.
Wikipedia has a list of terms that have entered the language this way. Some may surprise you.
Wikipedia also has a helpful page on the topic, which includes commentary on the phenomenon itself.
If you’re looking for a more general term that covers words entering the language that are not necessarily trademarks, I recommend neologism.
Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : VijayaRagavan , Answer Author : Tyler James Young
Where do new words come from? How do you figure out their histories?
An etymology is the history of a linguistic form, such as a word; the same term is also used for the study
of word histories. A dictionary etymology tells us what is known of an English word before it became the word entered
in that dictionary. If the word was created in English, the etymology shows, to whatever extent is not already
obvious from the shape of the word, what materials were used to form it. If the word was borrowed into English,
the etymology traces the borrowing process backward from the point at which the word entered English to the
earliest records of the ancestral language. Where it is relevant, an etymology notes words from other languages that
are related («akin») to the word in the dictionary entry, but that are not in the direct line of borrowing.
How New Words are Formed
An etymologist, a specialist in the study of etymology, must know a good deal about the history of English
and also about the relationships of sound and meaning and their changes over time that underline the reconstruction
of the Indo-European language family. Knowledge is also needed of the various processes by which words are created
within Modern English; the most important processes are listed below.
Borrowing
A majority of the words used in English today are of foreign origin. English still derives much of its vocabulary
from Latin and Greek, but we have also borrowed words from nearly all of the languages in Europe. In the modern
period of linguistic acquisitiveness, English has found vocabulary opportunities even farther afield. From the
period of the Renaissance voyages through the days when the sun never set upon the British Empire and up to
the present, a steady stream of new words has flowed into the language to match the new objects and
experiences English speakers have encountered all over the globe. Over 120 languages are on record as sources
of present-day English vocabulary.
Shortening or Clipping
Clipping (or truncation) is a process whereby an appreciable chunk of an existing word is omitted,
leaving what is sometimes called a stump word. When it is the end of a word that is lopped off, the process
is called back-clipping: thus examination was docked to create exam and gymnasium
was shortened to form gym. Less common in English are fore-clippings, in which the beginning of a
word is dropped: thus phone from telephone. Very occasionally, we see a sort of fore-and-aft
clipping, such as flu, from influenza.
Functional Shift
A functional shift is the process by which an existing word or form comes to be used with another
grammatical function (often a different part of speech); an example of a functional shift would be the development
of the noun commute from the verb commute.
Back-formation
Back-formation occurs when a real or supposed affix (that is, a prefix or suffix) is removed from a word to
create a new one. For example, the original name for a type of fruit was cherise, but some thought that word
sounded plural, so they began to use what they believed to be a singular form, cherry, and a new word was
born. The creation of the the verb enthuse from the noun enthusiasm is also an example of a
back-formation.
Blends
A blend is a word made by combining other words or parts of words in such a way that they overlap (as
motel from motor plus hotel) or one is infixed into the other (as chortle from
snort plus chuckle — the -ort- of the first being surrounded by the ch-…-le
of the second). The term blend is also sometimes used to describe words like brunch, from
breakfast plus lunch, in which pieces of the word are joined but there is no actual overlap. The
essential feature of a blend in either case is that there be no point at which you can break the word with everything
to the left of the breaking being a morpheme (a separately meaningful, conventionally combinable element) and
everything to the right being a morpheme, and with the meaning of the blend-word being a function of the meaning of
these morphemes. Thus, birdcage and psychohistory are not blends, but are instead compounds.
Acronymic Formations
An acronym is a word formed from the initial letters of a phrase. Some acronymic terms still clearly show their
alphabetic origins (consider FBI), but others are pronounced like words instead of as a succession of
letter names: thus NASA and NATO are pronounced as two syllable words. If the form is written
lowercase, there is no longer any formal clue that the word began life as an acronym: thus radar (‘radio
detecting and ranging’). Sometimes a form wavers between the two treatments: CAT scan pronounced either like
cat or C-A-T.
NOTE: No origin is more pleasing to the general reader than an acronymic one. Although acronymic etymologies are
perennially popular, many of them are based more in creative fancy than in fact. For an example of such an alleged
acronymic etymology, see the article on posh.
Transfer of Personal or Place Names
Over time, names of people, places, or things may become generalized vocabulary words. Thus did forsythia
develop from the name of botanist William Forsyth, silhouette from the name of Étienne de Silhouette, a
parsimonious French controller general of finances, and denim from serge de Nîmes (a fabric made
in Nîmes, France).
Imitation of Sounds
Words can also be created by onomatopoeia, the naming of things by a more or less exact reproduction of the
sound associated with it. Words such as buzz, hiss, guffaw, whiz, and
pop) are of imitative origin.
Folk Etymology
Folk etymology, also known as popular etymology, is the process whereby a word is altered so as to
resemble at least partially a more familiar word or words. Sometimes the process seems intended to «make sense of» a
borrowed foreign word using native resources: for example, the Late Latin febrigugia (a plant with medicinal
properties, etymologically ‘fever expeller’) was modified into English as feverfew.
Combining Word Elements
Also available to one who feels the need for a new word to name a new thing or express a new idea is the very
considerable store of prefixes, suffixes, and combining forms that already exist in English. Some of these are native
and others are borrowed from French, but the largest number have been taken directly from Latin or Greek, and they
have been combined in may different ways often without any special regard for matching two elements from the same
original language. The combination of these word elements has produced many scientific and technical terms of Modern
English.
Literary and Creative Coinages
Once in a while, a word is created spontaneously out of the creative play of sheer imagination. Words such as
boondoggle and googol are examples of such creative coinages, but most such inventive brand-new
words do not gain sufficiently widespread use to gain dictionary entry unless their coiner is well known enough so
his or her writings are read, quoted, and imitated. British author Lewis Carroll was renowned for coinages such
as jabberwocky, galumph, and runcible, but most such new words are destined to pass in
and out of existence with very little notice from most users of English.
An etymologist tracing the history of a dictionary entry must review the etymologies at existing main entries and
prepare such etymologies as are required for the main entries being added to the new edition. In the course of the
former activity, adjustments must sometimes be made either to incorporate a useful piece of information that has
been previously overlooked or to review the account of the word’s origin in light of new evidence. Such evidence
may be unearthed by the etymologist or may be the product of published research by other scholars. In writing new
etymologies, the etymologist must, of course, be alive to the possible languages from which a new term may have
been created or borrowed, and must be prepared to research and analyze a wide range of documented evidence and
published sources in tracing a word’s history. The etymologist must sift theories, often-conflicting theories of
greater or lesser likelihood, and try to evaluate the evidence conservatively but fairly to arrive at the soundest
possible etymology that the available information permits.
When all attempts to provide a satisfactory etymology have failed, an etymologist may have to declare that a word’s
origin is unknown. The label «origin unknown» in an etymology seldom means that the etymologist is unaware of various
speculations about the origin of a term, but instead usually means that no single theory conceived by the etymologist
or proposed by others is well enough backed by evidence to include in a serious work of reference, even when qualified
by «probably» or «perhaps.»
In the most recent edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, 171,476 words that are currently in use are included, together with 47,156 words that are obsolete. Derivative words number about 9,500. These are added as subentries. Still many more are included in the 20-volume dictionary. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary (3rd Edition, Unabridged) has about 470,000 entries, which is similar to the entries in Oxford Dictionary. Merriam-Webster also reports that the English vocabulary contains between 750,000 and one million words.
We take words for granted because we have been hearing and using them since birth. But if you think about it, where do new words come from?
Formation of new words
Very few words are invented by coining from a series of sounds that are chosen randomly. Many of them come from existing words with new meanings given. Some words are formed by changing some parts of speech. Still others create new words by combining different parts. They are called neologisms, which were manifested around 1772.
Neologisms are words that can come from several sources. For example, the word ”quark” came from “Finnegan’s Wake” by James Joyce, while ”cyberspace” came from William Gibson’s “Neomancer.”
The title of the novel “Catch-22” by Joseph Heller became an often-used phrase to describe a circumstance that is too difficult such that there is no escape in sight because the conditions are reciprocally conflicting. Names of authors become descriptive words as well, such as “Kafkaesque” and “Orwellian” from Franz Kafka and James Orwell, respectively.
Characters from famous books are also sources of new words, such as ”pollyanna,” (overly optimistic), ”scrooge” (selfish) and ”quixotic” (idealistic, romantic, unrealistic).
New words become integrated though constant use. Selected countries have organizations that adjudge when words are accepted. However, even if words are accepted, how people speak is not directly influenced by that. Phrasing is determined by which words are included in a language. The way people use words tells a lot about their culture.
In popular culture
Technology and culture are also influential in the development of neologism. Some of the latest neologisms in pop-culture are “Monstration” in Russian and ”Snowmageddon” in Canadian.
You might also remember the Doggo-Lingo that was popular in social media a few years back. Doggo-Lingo was used by some groups on Twitter and Facebook who posted pictures of dogs with funny captions. It became popular in Australia, a country known for creating diminutives of words and giving them an ”o” ending.
Still other words come from popular brands, such as ”Colgate” that became a common term for ”toothpaste” even if it is made by a different company. Others that belong to this group include Frigidaire, Xerox, Coke and Kleenex.
Effect on translations
Neologisms come from one language therefore translating them into other languages can be problematic.
Naturalization is used when doing translations that sound similar to English for published studies and research. Likewise, the English word is retained accompanied by a short explanation of its meaning. When translating neologisms, four translation methods are put into focus: loan translation, calque, use of analogues and transcription and transliteration.
Naturalization is usually used when English is the source language. Translators typically apply the ”think aloud protocol” when translating neologisms. This is the way they can find the appropriate word that sounds the most natural for the new word when used in speech. This is important because the right translation is critical in the legal systems and several industries. When the translation is inaccurate, it can lead to conceptual misunderstanding (translation asymmetry) that can result in miscommunication.
Embedding
It takes time for new words to be embedded into mainstream language. Some languages often borrow English neologisms and include them in their modern lexicon. For example, it is very rare for new words to be created in the Danish language, but it has borrowed several from English, including ”twerking, ”Brexit,” ”blog,” ”click bait,” ”selfie” and ”foodie.” Some of the spellings of borrowed words were altered to fit local spelling, such as ”metroseksuel” and ”oute.” The latter came from the word, ”out,” a term meaning, ”to out someone as a homosexual.”
Other words came from more exotic source, such as the Italian “barista” and the Japanese “emoji” that were introduced into other languages from English rather than from their original source. An exception is the word, ”quinoa” that was directly borrowed from Spanish, which was also sourced by the Spanish language from the Quechua, an indigenous language spoken in Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia.
English-sounding words that did not come from English
Surprisingly, there are new words that did not come from the English language. ”Helicopter parents” is a term used to describe parents who continuously hover over their children. In Denmark, what they use is ”curlingforaeldre” that translates to ”curling parents.” This means that the parents sweep aside all the obstacles that are on the path of their children. Some were used by Danes long before they became known to English speakers, like “facerape” and “fit to fight.” Danish speakers even have literal translations of English terms such as “svingvaelger” (swing voter), ”undskyld mit franske” (pardon my French) and ”veryvrede” (road rage).
What becomes clear is that globalization has something to do with the creation of new words because more people are learning English and adapting English to fit their own local language.
Processes of new word creation
The history of linguistic forms is called etymology. In an English dictionary, the etymology of a word is included, which describes what is known about the work before it was included in the dictionary. If it is a loanword, its etymology backtracks the process of the word from entering the English language to its earliest source.
An etymologist understands that various methods of how a new word is formed. Several processes are utilized and some of the important ones are as follows.
1. Borrowing
A large part of the English words used today came from foreign sources. A majority came from Greek and Latin, but English still borrowed words from almost all the languages spoken in Europe. In the process of linguistic acquisition, the voyages of Englishmen during the Renaissance period enriched the traditional English language.
Some of these include French, Dutch, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Gothic, Celtic languages, Norman and Indian (khaki, shampoo, curry, jungle, pajamas). English was also influenced by Old Norse (knife, sky, egg), Arabic (mohair, saffron, henna, cotton, coffee) as well as Yiddish and Hebrew (jubilee, kosher).
2. Clipping or shortening
Another method in the creation of new words is truncation or clipping. This means that part of an existing word is removed. The process could be back clipping, for example gymnasium becomes ”gym” and examination was clipped to form, ”exam.” Some words are fore-clipped, although this is rare. Examples are influenza that became ”flu” and telephone that was shortened to ”phone.”
3. Functional shift
This method involves a shift in the function of a word, such as a verb form becoming a noun. Some examples are gaslight, party and accessorize.
4. Back formation and affixation
In back formation, a supposed or real affix (suffix or prefix) is omitted from an existing word to form a new word. Enthusiasm, which is a noun, became ”enthuse,” which is verb. The small apple-like fruit called cherry, used to be called ”cherise.” However, many users thought that it looks like a plural term and started using ”cherry” that they thought was the singular term for the fruit. ”Liaise” came from the noun, liaison.
On the other hand, affixation is the method of adding prefixes or suffixes, like in the words, ”awesomeness,” ”subprime” or ”semi-celebrity.”
5. Blends
Combining parts of or entire words is called a blend. In some words, they overlap. For example, ”chortle” was created from parts of two words – ”snort” and ”chuckle.” Other examples include ”motel” that was a combination of motor and hotel, ”brunch” from breakfast and lunch. Blends are words that you cannot break into morphemes. They are different from compound words, for example, psychohistory and birdcage, which you can divide into two stand-alone words. New ones include ”staycation” (stay and vacation) and ”pixel” that stands for picture and element.
6. Acronyms
Several acronyms are accepted as words, such as FBI (pronounced F-B-I), MRI (M-R-I, for Magnetic Resonance Imaging), NASA (NA-SA) and NATO (NA-TO). In this examples, you can still see that they started as acronyms, particularly because they are written in capital letters (uppercase). Some words that used to be acronyms are now written in lowercase, like ”radar” that stands from ”radio detecting and ranging.” In the medical field, you often hear the term CT scan or CAT scan, which stands for ”computed tomography” scan or ”computerized axial tomography” scan.
7. Transfer of place or personal names
New words can be formed by using the names of things, places or people. For example, ”denim” came from serge de Nimes, while ”silhouette” was from a Frenchman named Étienne de Silhouette. William Forsyth, a botanist from Scotland, lent his name to the flower called ”forsythia.”
8. Onomatopoeia
Many words were formed by the imitation of the sounds they are associated with, such as ”pop,” ”whiz,” ”guffaw,” ”hiss” and ”buzz.”
9. Popular etymology
Sometimes referred to as folk etymology, this process alters a word to either partially resemble a familiar word or make sense of a word that has been borrowed. An example of this is ”feverfew” that came from febrigugia¸ a Late Latin word for a medicinal plant that translates to ”fever expeller.”
10. Combining elements
Another process, mentioned earlier is the combining elements that already exist to create new words, without considering if the words in their original language match. Many of these combination words can be found in technical and scientific terms.
11. Creative and literary coinage
At times, a creative play on words leads to the creation of new words. ”Googol” was coined in 1920 by Milton Sirotta. At that time, he was only nine years old. A googol is represented by 10100. ”Boondoggle,” which means pointless or meaningless activity was first used in 1927 as a scouting term.
From these you’ll realize the origin of new words that made it into the English lexicon. They enrich the language and influence other languages as well. Ensure that your documents, which may contain a combination of old and new words are properly translated from or into English and other languages by calling the experts. Day Translations, Inc. has a large team of human translators who are native speakers of over 100 languages. They are located all over the world and ready to serve you translation needs. We have subject matter experts to translate medical, legal, business art and other documents for specialized fields. You can get in touch with Day Translations through email at contact@daytranslations.com or through phone at 1-800-969-6853. You can reach us anytime, anywhere you are. We are open 24/7, 365 days a year.
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