Blog 1

Dictionaries and words

link: http://www.merriam-webster.com/help/faq/words_in.htm

     I always wondered how words make it onto the dictionary. Do people vote them in? Can I submit this new wacky word i created with my  friends? Well, according to the way Merriam-Webster dictionaries adds words to the dictionary, its a long tedious task. The editors go through many different publications like books, magazines, and many other forms of publications and highlight new words they find. They then have to see how many times is it used in many different types of mediums and see if there is a clear understanding of what the word means and how it's used. they'll then cite it and gather MANY more citations. If they find it is being widely used and there is an agreement of what the word means and how its used, it then becomes a word.

      I found this interesting because as a kid I was always told "aint" isn't a word, So I wondered "why not?" I agree with the way they vote new words because if the editors just added a lot of words they heard in the streets or friends we might have a lot of slang or pop culture sayings. This way we have more professional words in the dictionary. If someone really wants to know what "bae" or "swag" means they can look it up on an online dictionary.