Do you commit vocabulary abuse? Part 2

In a recent blog, I wrote that I love words.  To me they are fascinating.  And the English language is fascinating, because it is so dynamic.  I suppose French, or German, or Norwegian is fascinating, too, but I have no idea.

The English language changes rapidly and often, and is marked by a certain, well, wordy creativity, as witnessed by the annual announcement that certain new phrases have been added to this dictionary or that.

Merriam-Webster added some new words this past summer, and they are reflective of the current mood.  For example, sub-prime and dirty bomb are new this year.

Other words that have been added come from new technology, and even though they have been in use for several years, they have only been added this year.  After all, a word has to pass muster in order to be memorialized in a prestigious book like Merriam-Webster.

Word such as netroots and webinar are good examples of words that have sprung from the internet. That’s an example of a word your grandfather and mine wouldn’t have understood just 60 years ago, no matter how worldly they may have been.  But they may have at least heard the word cybernetics…a word that was added to the Random House Dictionary in the 1940’s.  And they had their equivalent of a dirty bomb, too…the A-Bomb, also a new word that decade. Bikini and snorkel were added then, too.

It’s interesting that even though the 2008 dictionary recognizes malware, the Microsoft Word program I am typing this on doesn’t. That’s strange, coming from a computer, after all.

One of the words added to M-W is descriptive of the type of person we have all encountered at one time or another…wing-nut.  In 1940, Random House added the ’40’s equivalent, goofball.

So, words come and go, and even though it may take awhile for some new words to get official recognition from the people who determine dictionary words, not all of them last.

In my last blog, I noted that my granddaughter called herself a “pescatarian”, a person who is a vegetarian but does eat fish.  I didn’t realize when I wrote that, that pescatarian is one of the words just added to the dictionary this year.  

I’m so proud of her.