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.
Image Copyright: rawpixel / 123RF Stock Photo
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.»
Subjects
- Arts & Humanities
—Foreign Language
—Language Arts
Grade
- 6-8
- 9-12
Brief Description
Discover the foreign-language roots of English words.
Objectives
Students
- learn that many English-language words have their origins in other languages.
- use a dictionary’s word derivation notes and abbreviation key.
Keywords
dictionary, abbreviation, word derivation, word origin, key, vocabulary
Materials Needed
- dictionaries (with word derivation/origin information included with definitions)
Lesson Plan
Where do words come from? Many words in the English language are derived from words in other languages. Dictionaries
(collegiate dictionaries, not dictionaries published for use by elementary-grade students) usually provide information
about the derivation of words. In this lesson, students will peruse the dictionary looking for words that have their
derivation in other languages.
FR — French
fr. — from
Gk — Greek
L — Latin
MD — Middle Dutch
Begin the lesson by sharing the dictionary derivations of a handful of words. As you share the examples below, you might
also refer students to the dictionary’s guide for abbreviations. (That abbreviation guide is usually found near the
beginning of the dictionary.) A list of the abbreviations used in the examples below appears in the sidebar to the right.
blare [fr. MD blaren to shout]
cir — cle [fr. L circus circle; Gk kirkos ring]
dis-tant [fr. FR distant remote]
es-pi-o-nage [fr. FR espion spy]
force [fr. L fortis strong]
Challenge each student (or you might pair students for this activity) to find ten interesting words — each
beginning with a different letter of the alphabet — for which they can document word origin/derivation from another
language. Then set aside time for students to share their word lists. By doing this, you will be familiarizing students
with the word derivation features of dictionaries and exposing them to other languages.
If you are a foreign language teacher, you might challenge students to use an English dictionary to track down five words that are derived from the language you are teaching them.
After students share their list of words with classmates, you might create a class dictionary that includes all students’ contributions.
Notes
Many words in the English language have their roots in Olde English (OE) or other old (O) languages, or in the Latin (L) language. You might encourage students to find at least five of their ten words that have roots in other than one of the ancient/old (O) languages or in Latin (L). Doing that will make the task a bit more difficult, but it will provide a better view of the rich origins of the English language.
Assessment
Write on the white/blackboard ten of the words that students found as part of the above activity. Have them look up each word in the dictionary and use the abbreviation key to identify the language from which the word originates.
If you teach older students, you might have them match the foreign language words from which words on the students’ list were derived to its English translation.
Lesson Plan Source
EducationWorld.com
Submitted By
Gary Hopkins
National Standards
LANGUAGE ARTS: English
GRADES K — 12
NL-ENG.K-12.8 Developing Research Skills
NL-ENG.K-12.10 Applying Non-English Perspectives
NL-ENG.K-12.12 Applying Language Skills
LANGUAGE ARTS: Foreign Language
GRADES K — 12
NL-FL.K-12.1Communication
NL-FL.K-12.3 Connections
See more Lesson Plans of the Day in our Lesson Plan of the Day Archive. (There you can search for lessons by subject too.)
For additional language lessons, see Education World’s special Vocabulary Fun archive.
Education World®
Copyright© 2005 Education World
12/15/2005
Have you ever experienced textpectation? According to the Urban Dictionary, that’s «the anticipation one feels when waiting for a response to a text message.» This new word, textpectation, is an example of a blend or (in Lewis Carroll’s more fanciful phrase) a portmanteau word. Blending is just one of the many ways that new words enter the English language, and more new words are being invented constantly!
The English language has developed over centuries, and many of the words we use today have come about from one of two overarching sources: evolving words from English or English-adjacent languages themselves, or deriving from loan words from other languages. Some of those adapted words, called cognates, still sound similar to the words in other languages that they’re related to, but this isn’t always the case — false cognates, or words that sounds like they should be related in meaning but actually aren’t, can trip up even expert writers.
In fact, most new words are actually old words in different forms or with fresh functions. We often think about word formation as something that happened centuries ago, but in fact, it’s something that continues to this day. Language is constantly evolving and expanding! As some words fall out of fashion and into obscurity, others come into being, often because of highly specific contexts of time and place. This process of fashioning new words out of old ones is called derivation — and here are six of the most common types of word formation:
Affixation:
Over half of the words in our language have been formed by adding prefixes and suffixes to root words. Recent coinages of this type include semi-celebrity, subprime, awesomeness, and Facebookable.
From a logical perspective, affixation is probably the type of new work formation that is easiest to figure out or to use to «create» new words in casual speech. It relies on the fact that these suffixes or prefixes have known, stable definitions, so they can be attached to any existing word to layer their meaning. Affixation may create «official», formal words as well as slang.
Back Formation:
Reversing the process of affixation, a back-formation creates a new word by removing an affix from an already existing word, for example liaise from liaison and enthuse from enthusiasm. The logic of forming these words often follows established patterns of grammar and word structure, making them fairly predictable in their creation.
Blending:
A blend or a portmanteau word is formed by merging the sounds and meanings of two or more other words. Examples might include Frankenfood (a combination of Frankenstein and food), pixel (picture and element), staycation (stay and vacation), and Viagravation (Viagra and aggravation).
In many (though not all) cases, words that are created via blending are slang words with a certain element of tongue-in-cheek playfulness. In the case of words like staycation, they may even combine two words with seemingly opposing meanings. They may also involve puns or other wordplay (for instance, Frankenfood makes play on words by stitching two words together, just like Frankenstein’s monster is stitched together from separate parts).
Clipping:
Clippings are shortened forms of words, such as blog (short for web log), zoo (from zoological garden), and flu (from influenza). In many instances, these clipped words will overtake their words of origin in popular usage, to the point where the original words or phrases become obsolete. No one calls a blog a «web log» anymore, and although «influenza» is still a valid medical term, common parlance is to simply call that particular family of viruses «the flu.»
Compounding:
A compound is a fresh word or expression made up of two or more independent words: office ghost, tramp stamp, breakup buddy, backseat driver. Phrases like these will create a new, specific image separate from their individual parts, often with highly specific connotations or figurative language. A «backseat driver,» for instance, refers to a person who tries to direct or advise the driver of a vehicle, often to an annoying degree, figuratively «driving» from the back seat.
Conversion:
By this process (also known as functional shift), new words are formed by changing the grammatical functions of old words, such as turning nouns into verbs (or verbing): accessorize, party, gaslight. Much like back formation, the formation of these words tends to emphasize known grammatical conventions.
На основании Вашего запроса эти примеры могут содержать грубую лексику.
На основании Вашего запроса эти примеры могут содержать разговорную лексику.
откуда это взялось
откуда она взялась
откуда что берется
откуда ты это взял
это откуда взялось
чего ты это взял
От кого я это слышу
Откуда они появились
Откуда все это взялось
Это еще что такое
откуда я только это взял
Gene Cernan: Where did that come from?
For some time, I had been getting various brief mental snapshots and I would notice for a millisecond and think, Where did that come from?
Я получал различные краткие картинки в уме, и я замечал их на миллисекунду и думал: «Откуда это взялось?
What happens when we carefully observe the next thought that pops up in our mind and ask: «Where did that come from?»
Что произойдет, когда мы внимательно будем следить за следующей мыслью, появляющейся в нашем сознании и спрашивать: «Откуда она взялась?»
Where did that come from?
Where did that come from? Right?
And you sit there and say, ‘Where did that come from?
I asked: ‘Where did that come from?’ because he had never expressed anything positive about the idea of marriage before.
Я спросила: С чего вдруг такие мысли? , ведь он никогда раньше не выражал какого-либо положительного отношения к браку .
Where did that come from, warrior?
Where did that come from and what difference has it made?
Where did that come from in me?
Where did that come from in my life?
Where did that come from? , was the initial response of almost everyone.
«Откуда вам известен мой номер?» — первая реакция почти всех.
Where did that come from in your mind?
But about gun control: Where did that come from?
Everyone has experienced some negative thought and wondered; «Where did that come from?»
У всех появлялись негативные мысли, и вы спрашивали: «Откуда они берутся?»
When you may say, «Where did that come from?».
Where did that come from, three weeks early?
Then wondered, «Where did that come from?»
После этого он спросил его: «Откуда это?»
Hello. Where did that come from?
Where did that come from, and is it sustainable?
Результатов: 115. Точных совпадений: 115. Затраченное время: 273 мс
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