Timeline for The process by which a word enters language
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
9 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 9, 2017 at 14:17 | comment | added | Lambie | I'm sorry to be such a naysayer but, come on, people invent words and others propagate them because they like them or people don't repeat them in which case they "die". If a word persists long enough, it ends up in dictionaries. There ain't no science to this at all. | |
| Jul 9, 2017 at 13:39 | answer | added | Lambie | timeline score: 1 | |
| Jul 9, 2017 at 13:27 | answer | added | MAA | timeline score: 1 | |
| Jul 9, 2017 at 13:26 | comment | added | Lambie | In today's world, words come into being through people's creativity. In English, there is no such thing as officially accepted. Stuff pops up in the press, academia, social media, media etc. and it catches on or does not. This is not called etymology!! | |
| Jul 9, 2017 at 13:06 | answer | added | Pete Forman | timeline score: 2 | |
| Jul 9, 2017 at 5:02 | comment | added | Xanne | The "to google" example is a recent example of a product name that becomes a generic; another is "to xerox", meaning to photocopy. Other routes include foreign borrowing and noun-verb transformations. There must be others. It would make a good master's essay to look at current dictionary additions and their sources. | |
| Jul 9, 2017 at 2:41 | comment | added | English Student | Good question! It should set us thinking. The crucial thing would be how many people actually use the new word in that meaning.I can say 'I stackexchanged your query' to mean I asked it as a question at Stack Exchange, but a huge number of other people need to use the same word in the same meaning before it will actually enter the language.For example, Google has been operating for almost 20 years and now 'I googled, he googled, we googled' is accepted English, which reflects the widespread use of Google search, but also the stability & value of the company: will Instagram be here in 2025? | |
| Jul 9, 2017 at 2:39 | comment | added | RaceYouAnytime | It's still called "etymology," whether the word entered the language recently or not. For instance, Oxford English Dictionary lists an etymology for "google" in the sense that you mentioned: Google, v.2: Origin: From a proper name. Etymon: proper name Google. Etymology: < Google, a proprietary name for an Internet search engine launched in 1998. | |
| Jul 9, 2017 at 2:32 | history | asked | Madivad | CC BY-SA 3.0 |