Official acceptance of a word into the English language?

Question

Assume that a word is used extensively in English but that it is not an official English language word. How does it become an official English language word? Is there an organization that determines that?

Answer 1

A word becomes official by gaining entry into an accredited dictionary, such as Merriam-Webster or Oxford. The word is judged on how it is being used, how many people use it, and its consistency of meaning. If you go to the below site, you can see the new words that are being added to the dictionary. There is also a link to see the new words that were added in 1806.

http://www.m-w.com/info/new_words.htm

Answer 2

I believe the French language has an official governing body that declares words official, but there's no such thing in English. For one thing, English is the primary language of several countries -- so a word that may be quite popular in Britain may be scarcely used in the States -- or it may have a different meaning.

I don't think English needs that kind of official organization. One problem with an official organization is that they are always behind the times. Another problem is that if they try to keep up, they risk letting words into the English language that will die (become obsolete) before the new dictionary comes out.

If you need to prove a word is "real" English, your best bet is to find it in a dictionary. Keep your audience in mind -- younger, more informal audiences won't mind cutting edge words. Older, stodgier audiences will complain if they don't understand what a word means. If you tailor your words to your audience, then you won't have to fight for them.

Of course, if you are an experimental author, go for it! To hell with the critics! We could always use a few new useful words.

Answer 3

No. I believe that the word is accepted and put in the dictionary when used a lot, such as the word kudo, which was introduced in the English dictionary on the 19th century.
kudo
kudos

Answer 4

re-image - To re-install a computer's operating system, and possibly other software, by writing a disk image to the hard disk, replacing the entire contents. Re-imaging is quicker, easier and more reliable than going through a complete install but it relies on having a disk image available. image etymology : Lat. imaginem, acc. of imago, a likeness. Formed, with suffix -ago, from the base im- seen in im-itari, to imitate.