# How would one go about addinga word to the English (or any other) language?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-one-go-about-addinga-word-to-the-english-or-any-other-language/504258>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 25, 2009, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-one-go-about-addinga-word-to-the-english-or-any-other-language/504258 "2009-07-25T22:53:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tao_s_Revenge)\
**Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-one-go-about-addinga-word-to-the-english-or-any-other-language/504258/21 "2009-07-28T19:46:13Z")

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A big source of new words is when langauge needs a new word (example the plethora of modern nouns).

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**Author:** ![Bisected8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a4c791/32.png) [@Bisected8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bisected8)\
**Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-one-go-about-addinga-word-to-the-english-or-any-other-language/504258/22 "2009-07-28T19:49:59Z")

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So do you think the world needs a word for an unusual skin colour fetish?

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**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\
**Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-one-go-about-addinga-word-to-the-english-or-any-other-language/504258/23 "2009-07-28T20:08:15Z")

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> [@njtt](#):
>
> I once read that the word “quiz” was introduced into the language by a Dublin publican, on a bet that he introduce a new word overnight. He then spent the night chalking QUIZ in large letters on walls all over the city. The next day everyone was asking questions about it, and “quiz” came to mean…
> 
> It probably isn’t true (and I may have remembered some of the details wrong), and even if it is, I doubt that it would work today, but it is kind of a nice story, that has stuck with me for many years. Does anyone else know anything about it?

[From etymonline.com:](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=quiz&searchmode=none)

> [@](#):
>
> 1847, quies, perhaps from L. qui es? “who are you?,” first question in oral exams in L. in old-time grammar schools. Spelling quiz first recorded 1886, though it was in use as a noun from 1867, perhaps from apparently unrelated slang word quiz meaning “odd person” (1782, source of quizzical). The anecdote that credits this word to a bet by the Dublin theater-manager Daly that he could coin a word is regarded by authorities as “doubtful” and the first record of it appears to be in 1836 (in Smart’s “Walker Remodelled”; the story is omitted in the edition of 1840).

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