Every year, the wordsmiths at Merriam-Webster get the unenviable job of deciding what new words and terms must be added to the dictionary.
Some of the latest additions for 2007?
Ginormous
Crunk
Smackdown
Bollywood
Speed dating
Sudoku
I’m serious..see?
http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/wayoflife/07/11/new.words.ap/index.html
What are words that you use that you think should be included? Or are there any that you don’t think should be included as official verbiage? Are there any words that you use on a daily basis that you know aren’t real, but people understand what you mean anyways?
Apparently the only criteria for a word entering the dictionary is whether it gets used enough in mainstream writing. So if you want to start a verbal revolution, I suggest you start seeding literary magazines and your novels-in-progress with whatever imaginary words you want to become legitimate vocab entries in the next five or so years.
For now, I’ll just enjoy finding creative ways to stick “ginormous!” into my next story.
I see that smile.
I always thought these things were decided by those corpus computers in universities – you know, if a word turns up a certain number times it is deemed to have entered the language and goes in the dictionary.
And I was using “ginormous” when I was a kid in the 70s! 🙂
I guess that means if you want a word to be officially accepted, you need to plan out for a few decades. It must be great to see all that work pay off, hmm?
Enjoy your vacation, Chris!
Really? Ginormous isn’t a word yet?
Who woulda thunk?
*jaw drops*
I feel so…staid, now.
I think it’s hilarious our blogs coincided like that. Glad you dropped by.