Who can create a new English word?

Question

give it a meaning too.

example: Quash - When one guy puts his hand up for a high five and the other guy punches his palm. An alternative to a high five, like teaming up to fight.


i just made it up lol

Ok well scratch quash out and use T9 instead. lol.

Answer 1

dude quash is already inthe dictionary
u trying to impress us?????????
well i made up khota it is an urdu word but u can use it otherwise as an english term
it means DONKEY

Answer 2

Anyone can create a new English word and in doing so, also create the meaning. The problem then becomes getting the word into popular usage. Any baby just learning to talk creates hundreds of babbling sounds, any of which can represent a "word" in the mind of the baby.

On the other hand, Carl Sagan used the established word "googolplex" to describe the number larger than 10googol (a one followed by a googol zeros). In mathematics, a googol is the name of the number 10 to the 100 power (a 1 with 100 zeroes). A googolplex is an even larger number, (a 1 with a googol zeroes).

When Stanford U. and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs wanted to create a search company with "gazillions" of references and terms, they modified the word to "Google". Since then, in popular usage, the act of searching for internet references has turned a created company name into a verb...to google=to look up. Strangely enough, while Yahoo's web capabilities also include a very good search engine that predated Google's, we don't "yahoo" anything,...yet. The term "yahoo" was first used in "Gulliver's Travels" referring to an "rude, unsophisticated, uncouth" individual. That meaning is still accepted in general usage, even slang

Another example of creating a word is changing a brand name into a generic reference to an item. When you copy a document on an office copier, popular usage over time created the word "xerox" to mean copy it, probably because Xerox was the brand name of the first copier. We don't "ricoh" something. When your nose is running, do you ask for a soft tissue, a puffs, or a "kleenex", still a brand name but one that generically refers to something to blow your nose on.

The bottom line is this. Make up a word or modify an existing word, have fun, like the kids in California have accomplished using "whatever" to express exasperation.

Children are customarily forbidden by their parents to curse. When my younger sister and I were travelling in Europe with my parents, we drove through a small town in Germany called Donau-Eschingen....say that with enough emotion behind it and it'll sound like a curse...just enough to get by Mom.

Answer 3

If by word you mean it appears in the dictionary then it really is based on use. Anyone can make up a word, but if it gets picked up in common language and continually used for about 2 years then Merriam-Webster will put it in the dictionary on a probationary period. As long as it doesn't die off then it becomes a permanent word.

Answer 4

Hmm... well quash is already a word

http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/archive/2004/09/24.html

My word is noonalage. It's what leaks out of politician's asses after I kick them for being so damn stupid. It has the texture and consistancy of cottage cheese, and a murky red color.

Answer 5

Douglas Adams and a friend of his published books on this, using British place names as new words.

Answer 6

Shakespeare created around 1500 of them.

Answer 7

well after like everything i say i usually say ishness why I D K my brother has a word hypocondrimomisim LOL

Answer 8

my friends and I call each other trustyfuls although that's not a real but it means that we're trustworthy and we can trust each other

Answer 9

schmeged. to sweat on something. :)) You schmeged in your shirt.