Comments on: What Makes A Word…A Word?

By: larrycheng

larrycheng — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 13:40:50 +0000

Dee – fair point. There are probably numerous examples where an acronym takes on a word-like feel, including the ones you mentioned. At that point, there may be an argument to consider it a word.

By: Dee

Dee — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 00:04:30 +0000

So if a word becomes a word because a significant number of people no what it means, and thus can be used for normal conversation, is anything that fits that criteria a word.
E.g. TV, BBQ, E.g. TNT, C4, DVD. Yes these are all abbreviations or Acronyms, but why would they not be words. Telly would be called a word but TV is probably used far more often and is just as recognizable. TNT and C4, most people would know they are explosives, but few would know there true names. DVD is an acronym, but what it was an acronym for changed when it was used for more than video. Hence the acronym was more important than what it was for.

Why are these not “words”? I don’t think the answer of “they don’t pass normal grammatical rules” is a valid argument (no vowels) as this means to make them words you would have to change the spelling ( Devedee ) which is putting the cart before the horse. Also the rules originally came after the words, so maybe if words are an evolving organism, the rules should be one too.

Dee

By: Patrick

Patrick — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 22:06:55 +0000

Internet security verifications sometimes ask you to type in a “word”, or sometimes two “words” separated by a space, that they show on the screen. But the string of letters that they have on the screen are not actually “words”. (Examples I recently encountered while purchasing tickets online: farribli untatta) Are they trying to change the definition of “word”. Are they implying that any string of letters together can be called a word?? hmmmm as the linquist said dynamic not static. Michael Jackson changed bad to mean good. I guess these sites can try to change the meaning of word to mean any combination of letters. Something to think about….

By: Patrick

Patrick — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 22:02:01 +0000

Internet security verifications sometimes ask you to type in a “word”, or sometimes two “words” separated by a space, that they show on the screen. But the string of letters that they have on the screen are not actually “words”. ( Examples I recently encountered while purchasing tickets online: farribli untatta Are they trying to change the definition of “word”. Are they implying that any string of letters together can be called a word?? hmmmm as the linquist said dynamic not static. Michael Jackson changed bad to mean good. I guess these sites can try to change the meaning of word to mean any combination of letters. Something to think about….

By: Azz

Azz — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 15:54:03 +0000

‘Goad’ really doesn’t work here — that’s (quite literally) the stick, and the incentive is the carrot.

By: ping crosby

ping crosby — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 03:24:06 +0000

like you said, there are lots of words out there that people don’t know/don’t use/never heard.

for example. instead of making ‘incent’ a word – how about using a word that already exists? like goad. it’s a good word.

By: larrycheng

larrycheng — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 10:57:31 +0000

Hey Hannah – great comment. That’s fascinating. So, once it’s in it’s in huh? I wonder what the decision making process is to get a word in the dictionary and what the thresholds are if it goes in forever. Must be a high bar!

By: h ryu

h ryu — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 05:22:52 +0000

Hey Larry,
So upstairs at work sits Jesse Sheidlower who’s an Editor-at-large of the Oxford English Dictionary. Anyway, last year we trudged up to interview him for a book I was working on, and a lot of the stuff he mentioned was pretty fascinating (I thought!). One thing I remember him saying was that the OED will add an average of 1,000 words per year but once it’s in, it’s in! The Dictionary will never delete a word, not because it’s no longer being used but because the Dictionary is a historical record of language and how people speak/spoke. So even if in 10 years no one knows “palatschinken” and the word becomes obsolete, someone at some point in time did and that’s why it’s in there. I think this–the idea that the dictionary is a record, almost a diary, if you like, of words and their usage–had never occurred to me, but it makes sense if you (rightly) believe that people define language, not dictionaries.

By: Luke G

Luke G — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:11:48 +0000

I actually used incentivize for quite some time (including in pitches) thinking that is was grammatically incorrect but knowing it would be understood, and was halfway proud when I found “incent,” which I thought was the correct usage.

Oops.

By: Tan A K

Tan A K — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 05:12:33 +0000

At least that’s another thing for kids to compete on to be a tad more competent. We’re for education and development, aren’t we?

And another thing for every adult to watch on TV and enjoy – even Ryan Seacrest followed the National Spelling Bee. lol