The
English language changes over time. Many
things influence the words we use and the way we use them. Over centuries or even decades, new words
come into vogue. Foreigners influence
our language. As does a global economy,
technology, and mass entertainment. But
now the Internet, with instant access to everyone’s thoughts and ideas via
blogs, podcasts, videos, and social media represents the biggest game-changer
to the language. We’ve arrived at the
point where made-up words or words used by a minor clique over a short period
of time suddenly gain legitimacy.
A growing
website, www.wordnik.com, co-founded by
lexicographer Erin McKean, who is a former editor of the New Oxford American
Dictionary, is shining a spotlight on words and terms that are so freshly
coined that their existence outpaces usage.
This means whereas traditional dictionaries wait to see which new words
have sticking power and become popularly used for a while before including them
into a dictionary, Wordnik desperately seeks to record any utterance made by
anyone anywhere. I call this practice
stupidictionizing.
Sure it
sounds made up, because it is. I just
minted it. Wordnik, please make the entry now!
Oh, wait, you want validation that it’s a real word? What if a few of my blog readers retweet it
to their handful of connections? Or
maybe I can get my local newspaper to quote the word in an interview with
me. Apparently it doesn’t take much more
than that for Wordnik to capture what it deems as words.
Dictionaries
are stuffy for a reason. Though it’s
important that a dictionary reflects the words used by people, it’s also
important that people use words from a dictionary. Otherwise you have
vocabulary anarchy. Ooh, wait. There’s another word we need minted into
Wordnik: vocabunarchy. Yes, you’re
welcome.
See it’s
way too easy to create a word. If every
phrase one makes up becomes a word, we’ll be flooded with counterfeit
words. Confusion will set in. People will be slowed down by these words,
running to a dictionary just to decipher an email from a friend.
However,
there’s something appealing about what Wordnik is doing. It is seeking to take note of our language in
any given moment, a snapshot of lingual evolution. But by doing so, it then creates a false
sense of the language and encourages people to use words they otherwise didn’t
know existed (because they didn’t).
Try doing
word searches or crossword puzzles, or play Scrabble or Words With Friend by
using Wordnik vs. a standard dictionary.
We live in
a world with standards, measurements, and laws for a reason. We want things to mean something, to be
relevant. Language is used precisely
because it has consistency and uniformity.
To get what we need, to say what we want, and to freely take action we
must have some set of guidelines to go by.
We must protect our language before it gets bastardized.
This
doesn’t mean stupidictionizing or vocabunarchy can’t become words, but they
sure as hell can’t become words just because I say so. They need to stand the test of time, and to
be used by a significant number of people.
Wordnik may record that BookMarketingBuzzBlog used these words and it
may further follow who else uses them, but until we see true common use of the
words, they are bullshit.
Wordnik,
according to a New York Times article, is seeking funding so it can have the
resources to digitally scour the Internet’s use of words, and hopes to uncover a
million words being utilized that are not in standard dictionaries.
Maybe
Apple, Twitter, Google, and a few other big-tech companies should just come up
with their own dictionary, similar to ones that sprouted for Ebonics,
Spanglish, sports lingo, and Star Trekisms.
A lot of
the phrases Wordnik is capturing reflect a combination of two words, a
shortened compound word if you will.
Awksome (awkward and awesome) and hilazing (hilarious and amazing) are
two of the eight million entries collected thus far. But why stop there? Why not combine these entries into yet newer
ones. How about awksomizing – it combines awksome with hilazing. Eventually, someone will come along and
suggest we use symbols or numbers to shorten these words, or to acknowledge a
certain degree of awksomizing, such as awk+zing6. The plus sign saves a few letters and the
six, on a rating scale of 1 to 10 reveals just how awksomizing something like
Wordnik really is.
Luckily,
there are enough words to describe how I feel about Wordnik right now, and they
include modern-day curse words and traditional words of anger, frustration and
disbelief.
Wordnik
believes it’s a new dictionary of the masses, for the masses. It doesn’t allow for consumers' input, such as
Wikipedia, so it’s not gone as far as it can go. Once it crowdsources any submission from
anyone, we’ll see eight million words grow to eight billion. But it’s already
out of control.
If Wordnik
loves words and language the way it says it does, it will rethink its
approach. In its attempt to give more
words meaning it will cease to give meaning to the words that mean everything.
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Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas
expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer. You can
follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him
at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the
third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2015
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