# New words **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 18, 2002, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-words/109733 "2002-05-18T20:24:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![insider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@insider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/insider)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2002, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-words/109733/1 "2002-05-18T20:24:25Z")
How would I go about starting a new word into circulation? How many new words are created each year? ---
**Author:** ![LolaBaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@LolaBaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LolaBaby)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2002, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-words/109733/2 "2002-05-18T20:27:48Z")
First of all, you’d have to kimfher its hudarios into a text fimwer, then type it aheras, then send it by kawwnho to Merriam-Webster. ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2002, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-words/109733/3 "2002-05-18T20:28:09Z")
Do you have one in mind? If so, start using it. Figure out how to get it used in media (such as, say, the SDMB). ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2002, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-words/109733/4 "2002-05-18T20:55:53Z")
**Ringo** has the gist of it. But you have to come up with a word that fills a need. Lots of people coin words all the time. Relatively few are used by anyone but the originator and even fewer make it into dictionaries. Some people coin words and then send them directly to dictionaries. Some even want to the dictionaries to buy their words. Yeah, like lexicographers don’t already have enough words. They actually have far more than they can fit in the limited space of the dictionaries and one of their difficult tasks is to pare their word list down. As an example of a word coiner, look up Gelett Burgess. He was a humorist in the first half of the 20th century who also liked to coin words. He even got a small book of his coinages published (_Burgess Unabridged_). Well, the words in that were mostly meant to be humorous, and some actually are. No where near as good as Douglas Adams’s _The Meaning of Liff_ though. Anyway, Burgess actually got one of his coinages adopted into regular use. Or maybe one and a half. The one true coinage he made was blurb, which filled a definite need. The other was an additional meaning to bromide. That is, the meaning of a trite, hackneyed saying. Burgess’s record is actually pretty good compared with many other word coiners. ---
**Author:** ![insider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@insider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/insider)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2002, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-words/109733/5 "2002-05-18T21:13:35Z")
I read somewhere that someone made a bet that he could get a new word into use I think within a few weeks or months. He wrote the word on bathroom stalls and he won the bet. The problem is that I can’t remember the word. Maybe it was the word quiz… ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2002, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-words/109733/6 "2002-05-18T22:28:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by insider \* > I read somewhere that someone made a bet that he could get a new word into use I think within a few weeks or months. He wrote the word on bathroom stalls and he won the bet. The problem is that I can’t remember the word. Maybe it was the word quiz… Yeah, it was quiz, but it was street urchins hired to write on the walls of Dublin. This is one of those colorful etymology stories that aren’t true. They’re repeated either because they are much more fun than the real etymology or (as in this case) we don’t have a good etymology. Here’s the [full story on quiz](http://www.wordorigins.org/wordorq.htm) from Dave Wilton’s WordOrigins page. ---
**Author:** ![Wikkit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c0e974/32.png) [@Wikkit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wikkit)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2002, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-words/109733/7 "2002-05-18T23:52:57Z")
This was also discussed in a recent thread, my ecquaintances. [How do I invent a word?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=113161&highlight=new+word) ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2002, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-words/109733/8 "2002-05-19T00:57:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dtilque \* > The other was an additional meaning to bromide. That is, the meaning of a trite, hackneyed saying. A usage I don’t believe _I’ve_ come across in practice. There are plenty of semi-techinical words whose origin is well documented, but which have passed into the common vocabulary: _scientist_ and _dinosaur_ are two that spring to mind. To generalise from these, it would appear to help to be some sort of public authority in the area in question. But that’s hardly a surprise.