safe news program : It ’s PossibleNew word pop up in the lexicon all the time , thanks to a handy — and almost maniacally extensive — editorial organization . If you desire your watchword to make into the large books , you ’ll need to get it past the logic gate - keepers . Step 1 : devise a Word and , More Importantly , Get It In PrintOver at the Oxford English Dictionary , the animation of a new word starts out in the Reading Program department , where about 50 hoi polloi spend their 9 to 5 lives gobble up all the printed fabric they can get their hands on : Novels , goggle box transcripts , song lyrics , newspaper , magazines" ¦ anything . They ’re on the lookout for raw quarrel ( or innovative use of old , terrene words ) . New discovery are forward to a searchable electronic database of quotes , which Oxford calls " Incomings . “
Step 3 : continue Popular Or PerishYes , the lexicon is just like junior high . Dictionaries are mean to put down English as a dwell voice communication , not a museum showpiece . So when a word falls out of use , it can osculate its spot on the all - dictionary cheerleading squad good - bye . In 2003 , the good folk at Merriam Webster opened the room access for 10,000 up - and - coming new words and usages , including : " phat,“ " Frankenfood,“ and " cheesed off . “ ( This should give you hope for your best-loved word . Whatever it is , it ’s got ta be good than " cheese off . “ ) But , that same year , several hundred words — each one once as popular , in its own path , as " phat"—got the axe . Among them , " snollygoster,“ which once ( back when your Grandma had all her teeth ) referred to an unscrupulous politician , and " Vitamin G,“ which has n’t technically disappear but is now called " riboflavin . “
