Where do new words come from?

As of today, there are 171,146 English language words, according to the Oxford Dictionary and every year around 1,000 new words get added.

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Why we need more words?

As we make progress in the world, new ideas, technologies, and inventions emerge; the existing words can’t express what we want to convey and that is how new words come into existence.

How we make new words?

One of the ways is to derive a word from another language. Nearly half of the English vocabulary comes directly from other languages such as Latin, Greek, French, and German. This is mostly because the word which describes the thing is borrowed itself, and sometimes, another language just has the right word for a complex idea.

Another way to make new words is by combining existing words that convey part of the new idea into a new word, like Arm and Chair can be Armchair.

Blending parts of words together can also result in a new word, like Breakfast and Lunch can be Brunch.

Sometimes new words emerge from obsolete words that had lost their meaning in the past but now have gained a new meaning. Sometimes words gain new meaning through misuse of the words or using them ironically like the word sick has been used to describe a cool person in today’s generation.

Where do words originate from?

Some countries depend on language academies for new words and their approval. But you don’t have to be a linguistic individual to create new words. Words originate from common people, these words get transcended through the medium of communication and soon catches up to other people. Through the internet, this process has fastened way more than it was earlier.
Words help us to communicate, to understand one another, and to an extent understand our universe.

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