When words come calling
Wordsmiths have welcomed the proposal of the Collins Dictionary to invite words for inclusion in its online and print editions. By keeping their ears close to the ground, the literary detectives behind Collins are hoping to suss out emerging words, particularly from pop culture and science and technology, and passing judgment on their sources and staying power within three weeks.
By being dynamically assimilative, the English picked up words from cultures to which their position as the world’s premier colonial power gave them free access. There was a time when even a small town in Tamil Nadu, “Kumbakkonam” (with a pejorative connotation like that of deceit), was in the dictionary, but with changing trends and modernity, even “aerodrome” and “charabanc” are dropping out of common usage, and out of Collins too.
The artificial language Esperanto was invented to pose a challenge as a written language, but, with the advent of the wired world, English has only widened its reach. As computers meld the globe into a seamless world, English is the undisputed lingua franca. To further boost its popularity and dynamic equilibrium, budding Shakespeares, bursting with neologisms, are now being welcomed to contribute to changing usage.
A dictionary may assert its popularity best by being the definitive arbiter in disputes at Scrabble, the word game. A lexicon that passes judgment on whether “zygotic” actually counts is bound to be more in the public eye than tomes of several parts gathering dust on the shelves of lexicographers.
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