Have you ever wondered how new words get into our language? Words don’t just appear out of thin air they come from many interesting places. Sometimes, they’re borrowed from other languages. Other times, people make them up on purpose or by accident. Let’s dive into the fascinating world of how new words are born and become part of everyday speech.
Borrowing Words from Other Languages
One of the easiest ways languages grow is by borrowing words from others. For example, English took “schadenfreude” from German, which means feeling pleasure at someone else’s misfortune. Another borrowed word is “safari,” which comes from Swahili and Arabic, describing a journey or expedition. When a language doesn’t have a single word for something, it often borrows a foreign one and English is especially good at this.
Making Up Words: The Power of Creation
Sometimes, people just invent words. Writers, speakers, and even regular folks create new terms to fill a need or just for fun. These one-time creations are called nonce words made for a particular moment or reason. If a nonce word catches on and people start using it regularly, it can grow into a neologism, which means a brand-new word accepted by many. However, most nonce words never make it into dictionaries or everyday use.
How Some Made-Up Words Stick Around
Some new words take years to be accepted. Take “guesstimate,” for example a mix of “guess” and “estimate.” It’s been around for over 80 years but is still considered informal by many. Most new words never become permanent parts of the language and eventually fade away.
Famous Word Inventors in History
Authors have been inventing words for centuries. Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice in Wonderland, created fun words like “chortle” (a mix of “chuckle” and “snort”) that we still use today. Others, like “slithy” or “frabjous,” remain known mostly to fans of his books.
James Joyce, in his complex book Finnegans Wake, made thousands of new words, like “meandertale” (combining “meander” and “tale”). One of his coined words, “quark,” was picked up by physicists in the 1960s to name tiny particles inside atoms. That’s a rare example of a nonce word moving into science!
New Words for New Generations
Every generation invents its own words. In 1961, Robert Heinlein created “grok” in his novel Stranger in a Strange Land to mean deeply understanding something. It became popular in the 1960s counterculture and recently got a new twist as the name of Elon Musk’s AI chatbot.
Accidental Words and Viral Memes
Not all new words come from careful invention. Some happen by accident. For instance, the Merriam-Webster dictionary once added the word “dord” because of a misread note that was supposed to mean “density.” And in 2017, a mysterious typo in a tweet by Donald Trump “covfefe” took on a life of its own and sparked endless jokes and news stories.
On the younger end of the spectrum, Gen Alpha (kids born after 2010) is shaping language with viral terms like “skibidi, made popular by bizarre YouTube videos. It’s mostly used humorously or ironically, much like “lol” (laugh out loud), which started as texting slang and is now a staple of digital talk.
Language Is Always Changing
The tricky part about new words is no one can predict which ones will last. Take “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” from Mary Poppins. It had a moment of fame but mostly serves now as a fun, old-fashioned word.
Words are more than just tools they shape who we are and how we connect. Younger speakers often push language in new directions, sometimes driving change that older generations resist. This constant evolution is what makes language so alive and exciting.
In the end, one thing is clear: language never stands still. New words will keep coming, and with them, new ways for us to express ourselves.