Tag: dictionary

2019 WOTY and Neologism

What?

The Word of the Year for 2019 is “existential,” or “climate emergency,” “climate strike,” or my personal favorite, “they;” depending on where you search. Each year a group of linguists from different organizations; i.e. Merriam-Webster, Oxford Languages, Collins Dictionary, dictionary.com, and the American Dialect Society, among others, pick their word of the year. Sometimes abbreviated WOTY, the word of the year is a singular word or expression that is significant to the public. Linguists also look at the usage of current words, which is called neologism. 

Linguists study the science and utilization of language. Their attention is on public practice of the term or expression and how it interfaces with the real-world. To become the Word of the Year, linguists consider the most searched words, the ones that have a significant spike from the previous year, and do they have lasting potential.

Merriam-Webster‘s WOTY

The 2019 Word of the Year for Merriam Webster is they, having a 313% spike in searches over the previous year. Moreover, there is a shift in the way they is used, which lured people to their dictionaries to hunt for the current definition. The first definition states, “those people, animals, or things.” The second meaning is, “used to refer to people in a general way or to a group of people who are not specified.”

As stated by Merriam-Webster, “English famously lacks a gender-neutral singular pronoun to correspond neatly with singular pronouns like everyone or someone, and as a consequence, they has been used for this purpose for over 600 years.” Preferred in professional writing, now in the place of the word “he or she,” use the singular pronoun “them or they,”

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“Who’s Changing the Meaning” Wins Honorable Mention

‘Who’s Changing the Meaning?’ Wins  Honorable Mention in Coveted 2017 Royal Dragonfly Book Award

My book, “Who’s Changing the Meaning?” won Honorable Mention in the 2017 Royal Dragonfly Book Award. The Royal Dragonfly is the source that librarians and teachers use. The categories The book earned Honorable Mention in are:

Best Newbie NonFiction

Best Cover Design

2017 ROYAL DRAGONFLY BOOK AWARDS

They Think You Are Saying Something Else

Ever wonder why the person you are talking to didn’t understand what you said? It’s because they think you are saying something else. Since Noah Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language, the definitions of words have changed. We expect that to happen as we invent new things, as slang words are created, and to keep up with the times. Consequently, new words are needed to name them.

Adding words for these reasons is understandable. Changing definitions of words is difficult to grasp. In Webster’s first dictionary the word “definition” is described as “a brief description of a thing by its properties; the explication of the essence of a thing by its kind and difference.” The definition represents the core of what a word is. To create his dictionary, Webster looked at 26 dictionaries in different languages to determine the origin of each word. His goal was to capture the essence of the word.

Truth, Reality, and Lie

Yet definitions are changing from what we thought a word meant. “Truth” went from an “indisputable fact” to an “accepted fact.” What was once the real state of things is now whatever people will allow. “Reality” used to mean “fact” and now means “a resemblance to being real.” No longer does it mean what actually happened. Reality is what anyone wants it to be. The word “Lie” means “to make an untrue statement.” If what is true is what we allow and what happened is somewhat similar to what actually happened, isn’t that a lie? [I use the word lie since the words fake and phony aren’t in Webster’s dictionary.] Continue reading “They Think You Are Saying Something Else”

THEY DIDN’T HEAR WHAT YOU ACTUALLY SAID

The definitions of words are changing. Truth used to mean an “indisputable fact.” Now it means anything that will be “accepted as fact.” There are those who are aware of the change and those who are not. When you speak you don’t know what definition they are using and they don’t know your definition. Communication is becoming lost since we don’t have a common language.

In my blog, THEY THINK YOU ARE SAYING SOMETHING ELSE,”we look at the problems that are occurring today.

BOOK REVIEW by Richard Waguespack, Ph.D., LCSW May 19, 2017

Pope, Dana Lynn (2017-05-05). Who’s Changing the Meaning?  Dana Lynn Pope, LLC. Kindle Edition.

In Who’s Changing the Meaning, Dana Pope explains in striking clarity the importance of integrity in language and its relationship to what is at stake in western civilization. While meanings do expand and multiply over time through normal transitions, today our language is undergoing revision by many whose primary purpose is not to communicate honestly, but to spin and manipulate!   Continue reading “BOOK REVIEW by Richard Waguespack, Ph.D., LCSW May 19, 2017”

Self-Serving, Sheeple and Enlightened

There are some definitions you will need to know as I use them often: Self-Serving, Sheeple, and Enlightened.

Self-Serving:

Preoccupied with one’s own interests, disregarding the concerns, needs, well-being, etc., of others; serving to further one’s own selfish pursuits; habitually seeking one’s own advantage, especially at the expense of others. They reject the existence of truth.

Generally, the Self-Serving force their own agenda and ideologies on the unsuspecting. They plan to make official their way of thinking. The goal is to drive the behavior of all others, to get people to think their way. They do this stealthily and slowly so people will not see it coming. Although it is a lengthy process, the unsuspecting will not notice how far they have drifted from the original.

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Here’s the Problem

If people were deceiving you right to your face would you want to know? That’s not such an unheard of idea. When people talk with each other today it’s common not to say what we mean.

Honey, do these jeans make me look fat?
No.
[It’s your butt that makes your jeans look fat but I can’t say that.]

Would you like to go out again?
Yes.
[He never heard from her again.]

He’s a really great worker.
[I’m glad he’s out of my department. He wasn’t a good employee.]

It’s easier to say what we think someone wants to hear instead of saying what we think. We want to avoid hurting another person or the confrontation that might ensue. We want to get our way so we gloss over the truth. Taking the painless way out is just easier. In our communication  theses practices are common and it’s considered acceptable. It’s delivering a message by using words that hide our true thoughts.

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