There Are New Words? But I Haven’t Used All the Old Ones Yet

Words are important to me, as they should be for anyone in the communication business. As a kid I loved to pore through the dictionary (or the encyclopedia or an atlas) and I still do. I still get excited learning new words (especially ones I can use in Scrabble). One of the great things about the English language is that no matter how many words you know, there are still thousands that you don’t.

And there are always new ones being created. Every couple of years the Oxford English Dictionary or Merriam Webster makes a big deal about the new words that they’ve chosen to include in their latest editions.

In March of this year in the quarterly release of OED Online, that venerable touchstone of the English language noted that there were 1,700 new words or meanings included for the first time. They’re not all “new” words; they’re just new to the OED.

Some of my favorites from the new crop:

• dataveillance n. The collection or monitoring of (esp. digital) data relating to personal details or activities, regarded as a form of surveillance.
• LARPing n. Live-action role-playing [First recorded in 1990]
• ludology n. The study of games (now especially video games) and game playing. [1961]
• metamaterial n. A synthetic composite material engineered to display properties not usually found in natural materials [2000]
• scratchiti n. Words or images engraved or etched (illegally) into surfaces in a public place. [1995]

But we no longer have to wait for a new dictionary to come out to let us know what the new words and phrases are. They’re all around us. Some come from TV (“yadda, yadda, yadda” or “truthiness”), or rappers (“cray”) or even politicians (“retroactively retire”).

Every month Wired  has a monthly section called Jargon Watch that offers some new language locutions.

Here are a few recent ones I want to start using:

• bashtagging v. Bashing a company on Twitter using its own promotional hashtag.
• phablets n. pl. Gigantic smartphones designed to double as tablets.
• showrooming v. Browsing merchandise at big-box stores such as Best Buy and Walmart before buying online at a discount.

The NY Times Magazine has a feature assembled by Lizzie Skurnick on its jumbled up amalgam of little newsbits and factoids The One-Page Magazine, called “That Should Be a Word.”

Recent offerings included:

• domestech n. Household member who supports electronic devices.
• inpercept v. To deny someone his or her subjective experience.

Taking inspiration from Ms. Skurnick we should all feel the freedom to institute new coinages of our own. For those who seek public recognition of their creativity, The Collins Dictionary, whose website notes that they have been “pioneers in dictionary publishing since 1819,” encourages users of the site to submit their own words and offers daily prizes for doing so.

Anyone who submits a word that is accepted will get the proper acknowledgement, but the words must first be vetted by lexicographers, and other users of the site, who must agree that a word is widely used enough to be included. That doesn’t sound like as much fun, but it didn’t stop the intrepid individuals who submitted the words amazeballs, lollage, or moblart.

Some of the words currently listed as under consideration that I would like to see make the cut include:

• photobombing v. Appearing at the back of someone else’s photograph without them knowing, so they are surprised when they see the photo.
• trendfear n. The anxiety that you are not up to date with current trends.
• tweeps n. Twitter users.

So remember, the fact that you haven’t used all the old words in the English language is no reason not to make up some new ones. You might come up with something truly marmitical.