Where Do New Words Originate?

The English language currently contains over 170,000 words. However, the Oxford English Dictionary adds around a thousand new words each year. How do they enter our daily lives, and where do they come from? From Marcel Danesi’s research, this piece describes the emergence of a new word in a language.

The Oxford English Dictionary adds roughly 1,000 new words a year. How do they enter our daily lives, and where do they come from? There are already more than 170,000 words in use in the English language, so it could seem like we have plenty. However, as our world evolves, fresh concepts and innovations emerge, and science advances, there are holes in the meanings of the words we currently use that we try to fill in as creatively, practically, and even oddly as possible.

Learn a term from a different language as one method. Over the course of its history, English has taken so many terms from other languages that about half of its vocabulary is foreign-language-derived. Sometimes this is due to the fact that the thing the word depicts was itself borrowed. While trade brought crops and food like Arabic coffee, Italian spaghetti, and Indian curries to medieval England, Rome and France introduced legal and religious concepts like the altar and jury. However, there are occasions when a complicated idea or emotion, like naiveté machismo or schadenfreude, is best expressed using a word from a different language.

In order to name new notions, scientists frequently use classical languages. For instance, the word "clone," which refers to producing a new plant from a portion of an old one, is derived from the Ancient Greek word meaning twig. Today, the process is reciprocal, with English lending words to languages all over the world, like software. Combining existing terms that individually communicate a component of the new concept is another well-liked strategy for filling vocabulary gaps.

To accomplish this, two complete words can be combined to form a compound word, such as airport or starfish, or word fragments can be cut and combined to form terms like spork, brunch, or internet. And unlike words borrowed from other languages, these are frequently understandable on first hearing. And occasionally, a new word isn't actually new. Words that have become obsolete take on new meanings.

The word "villain" originally referred to a peasant farmer, but in a twist of aristocratic elitism, it came to mean a terrible person who did not uphold the knightly code of chivalry. A geek has evolved from a funfair performance to any unusual individual to a particular class of awkward genius. And other times, through irony, metaphor, or abuse, words come to mean the opposite, as when sick or evil are used to describe something genuinely lovely. But if words may be created in all of these different ways, why do some spread throughout society while others lose favor or never do? Sometimes the solution is straightforward, as when scientists or businesses give a new invention or technological advancement an official name.

Additionally, several nations have language academies that make choices. However, authoritative sources like dictionaries typically only record the most recent usage. New words don't appear from above; instead, regular people spread them by using the ideal combination of catchy and practical phrases. Consider the term "meme," which sociobiologist Richard Dawkins developed in the 1970s from the Ancient Greek for imitation. He used it to compare the spread of ideas and symbols to the spread of genes within a population.

With the development of the Internet, the process became clearly visible in the quick spread of jokes and photos. And soon, a particular kind of image was associated with a phenomenon. Meme is a word that defines how words enter the language as well as being a word in and of itself. The phenomenon of words that describe themselves has a name, and it is called autological. New words are not all created equal. Some survive for millennia, some change with the times, and some disappear. A lot can be learned about our world and how we communicate within it from the way these words are generated and travel to become a part of our speech. Some words carry information, while others interpret it.