23  Making up new words

Language is dynamic, and so anyone can make up new words, but there are some caveats.

Many words are added to dictionaries every year, but that only occurs when there is widespread use of them. So how do they get there? Some verbs are simply the brand name of the device used to do a function. Think hoover for vacuum cleaning, or Google for web searching. Of course, such usage tends to become free advertising for those brands, much to the consternation of their competitors.

Many words start among a small group of experts in a field as a way of simplifying their communications by using those words as a succinct stand-in for a concept, but as that field becomes more well known, those words start being absorbed into common speech. Sometimes it is the translations of acronyms used in those fields that overlays common words. In computer lingo, RAM translates into memory, which before computers had only one meaning.

Many words go through a two-step process on their way to popularity. The first stage is through linking two words by a hyphen (-). This effectively tightens the coupling between the two compared to simply sequencing them with a space, implying a causal relationship between the two, rather than just an association. For example, specific to a customer becomes customer-specific. This can be done at any time by anyone, though the exact form of the words may need to be adjusted to make it sound like it flows together.

As such terms gather popularity, some may drop the hyphen, and when enough do that, the word has become ready for dictionising. Their widespread acceptance will depend upon how easy the new word is to remember and speak, though that is most likely to be done with much shorter terms. Thus some terms may never make it beyond the hyphen stage, just because they are easy to remember them as their two parts.

Now some may be wondering if dictionising is a so-called real word. It is not because it was made up on the spot to mean adding to a dictionary, a meaning that would be obvious from the context of words getting into dictionaries as stated in the first paragraph. If the article had been about writing screenplays, it would likely be interpreted as meaning using words that the character would use. They may seem like different interpretations, but they both involve adding to a vocabulary. Since words can slightly morph in meaning depending upon the context, both of those meanings are valid.

Technically, in the context that word was originally used, dictionarising would probably be a better word, but it does not quite have the same flow, making it an unlikely word to gain general traction, much less make it to any dictionary's new word list. A case of a syllable too far! Of course, it is also used in an uncommon context, so is unlikely to ever be seen by enough people to become popular. However, lack of possible popularity is not a reason to avoid creating new words.

If looking up the etymology of words, many will be seen to be a mixture of a root word with various extra bits, perhaps from different languages. These have come about because people have used the root word but contexualised it with forms they are used to using, perhaps from their native tongue. Thus what was done with dictionary to make it dictionising is an age-old process, and so is valid to use at any time. The only caveats are that the context has to be clear enough that the meaning is obvious, and the customisations must seem natural to readers.

The main point here is that a reader should not have to stop and analyse the words in order to understand them, or how to pronounce them. If they have to do that, the communication flow is interrupted, which if part of a deep narrative may mean that they may disconnect from it. Appearing clever at the expense of communication is not a good strategy, but it can be fun to throw in a new word occasionally.