How and when words are created



Etymology is the study of how a word's shape has evolved over time as well as how its semantic meaning has altered. Comparative semantics, morphology, semiotics, and phonetics are all used in this area of historical linguistics.

A vocabulary that keeps expanding

455 new words were added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary in October 2021. Nearly 700 new words and phrases were incorporated into the Oxford English Dictionary in March 2022.

Transformation of words

English is incredibly adaptable and open to borrowings and influences from other languages.

The formation and development of a word can be explained by a number of processes:

Borrowing

Even though Latin and Greek make up the majority of the language's vocabulary, English has terminology that have roots in almost every European language. The roots of the modern English language can actually be found in more than 120 languages.

Deleting or shortening

Sometimes a significant section of an existing one is omitted. The act of trimming the end is known as "back-clipping." For instance, gymnasium changed to gym.

Back-formation

When a prefix or suffix is dropped to create a new word, this process is known as back-formation. For example, a certain type of fruit was originally called cherise (cherry), but because some people thought the word sounded more like it was being used in the plural, they began using what they thought to be the singular version (cherry), and a new word was born.

Blends

By combining different words or word fragments in a way that causes them to overlap, or by enclosing one word inside another, we can produce this phrase. Motel is an example of this type of combination, as is brunch, which combines breakfast and lunch.

Almost 40 years ago, the terms AIDS and HIV entered the English language. However, they did not appear in the dictionary until the second edition of the Oxford English Dictionary was published in the late 1980s. Source: The Conversation.

As a result, other processes are also connected to the creation of words and phrases, such as acronyms (FBI, NASA, etc.), the transfer of names of people or places (the word "silhouette" comes from the name Étienne de Silhouette), the imitation of sounds (such as buzz, hiss, guffaw, whiz, and pop), and literary and ad hoc coining (boondoggle, googol, jabberwocky).

It's a wonderful experience to learn the history behind the words we use every day and their original meanings, which are frequently very different from how they are used today.

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