(orchestra music)
- I know what you're thinking.
Hey Jonathan, aren't all words made up?
Well the answer is yes.
So how does a series of noises become
well a word?
Well the answer's pretty simple.
It gets used.
It's true.
A word becomes legitimate or a real word
when it becomes an accepted part of the spoken
and printed language.
Take the Oxford English Dictionary
or OED, for example.
Since around 1857, this dictionary has used
a reading program to find appropriate quotations
for each word in the dictionary.
In the department, about 50 lexicographers
read almost every possible printed medium.
We're not just talking novels or newspapers here.
They'll also read TV transcripts, song lyrics,
magazines and stuff like that.
When they're reading, there on the lookout for new words.
Each time they discover something new,
they send it to a database.
From there, each potential new entry
is given to an editor.
This editor tracks the word's long-term use and popularity.
For Oxford, the rule of thumb is that a word
can only appear in the dictionary once it's met
what I'll call the triple five rule.
It's been in print five times
in five different sources
over a period of five years.
Oxford also searches for new words
using what they call the Oxford English Corpus,
a massive collection of published material
from across the internet.
This corpus contains almost 2.5 billion words
of 21st century English and they're adding to it
all the time.
While the specifics of this selection process might vary,
other dictionaries do the same thing.
The editors at Merriam-Webster
spend a couple of hours each day
reading all the published material they can get
their hands on and noting new or interesting changes
in language including new words.
While thousands of new words and uses
might make it into a dictionary each year,
some dictionaries also remove words.
These are words that may have been popular in decades
or even centuries ago that may as well not exist today.
For example, Merriam-Webster has cut sternforemost,
hodad, snollygoster, stylopodium and more.
While it might sound cruel to throw these words out,
we have to remember that dictionaries map English
as a living language.
So as English changes, so do its dictionaries.
Thanks so much for watching.
Have you invented a word that should be in the dictionary?
Is there a term that should make a comeback?
Let us know in the comments.
And while you're thinking it over,
I'll read this list of newly added words
that I literally have never looked at before.
Demosthenical, bestie, demobilized.
Really, that wasn't a word before?
Eticket.
Seriously?
I mean Disney Land's been around for, okay.
Impadilokalean.
Scientificness.
Seriously, we're letting that one in?