By Roland Piquepaille
Merriam-Webster, the dictionary publisher, recently asked its readers on its web site to submit their favorite words which didn't exist yet in the dictionary. After receiving about 3,000 submissions, the company published a top ten list of non-existing words. This list is dominated by 'ginormous' (bigger than gigantic and bigger than enormous) and by 'confuzzled' (confused and puzzled at the same time). However, a search on Google reveals a different story. Read more...A research on 'ginormous' brings 70,900 results while a look at 'confuzzled' returns 48,300 items -- even if you still can't look at more than a thousand results in reality.
The number 3 on the Merriam-Webster list, 'woot' (an exclamation of joy or excitement), is the clear winner on Google, with 717,000 results. But it's not surprising with the popularity of the Woot web site where you can buy things only on a single day.
'Chillax' (chill out/relax, hang out with friends) and 'snirt' (dirty snow) are numbers 4 and 9 on the Merriam-Webster list, and are respectively mentioned 21,700 and 14,900 times by Google.
After these five words, numbers are falling dramatically.
The number 5 on the Merriam-Webster list, 'cognitive displaysia' (the feeling you have before you even leave the house that you are going to forget something), has only been found in 42 documents by Google.
And one of my favorites on this list at number 7, 'phonecrastinate' (what you do when you check the caller ID box before answering the phone), is only mentioned 45 times by Google. So I guess there are not many 'phonecrastinators.'
Other words fare a little bit better: for instance, 'lingweenie' (a person incapable of producing neologisms), which is number 10 on the list of the dictionary publisher, is featured in 466 documents found by Google.
Contrary to 'lingweenies,' 'vocabularians' are people who make up new words. And you can find today 2,040 references to this word on Google.
So, as a very unscientific conclusion, there are about four times more people able to create new words than people who can't. This is refreshing.
Sources: Roland Piquepaille, with various websites
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