The 1,000,000th English word.

[グレッグ]

Can you believe it?


The English language is set to celebrate its millionth word next month, and one new-fangled piece of gaming slang is among the contenders for the crown, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Noob

The Millionth Word?

"Noob" (or "n00b"), a derogatory term for an inexperienced player, is one of the words likely to be officially admitted into the language by a Texas-based academic group, the Global Language Monitor. Noob is vying for the gong with neologisms like "defriend" -- to remove someone from one's friends list on a social networking site -- and "greenwashing" -- an attempt by a corporation to appear environmentally conscious.

Can't believe there are really a million words in the language? Don't feel bad: according to the Telegraph, even the most linguistically gifted individuals have a vocabulary of a comparatively meager 70,000 words. Bunch of noobs.

http://videogames.yahoo.com/events/plugged-in/-noob-could-be-millionth-english-word/1313588

[SStrikerR]

...:disapprove:
Why world?

[Omega_Weltall]

not surpriseing. hell back in early 2000 they made "unwise" a word after the uninstall prog in Win95

[HolioArtillery]

'bout time we got Orwelian on these dictionary writers. To many words for comfort. They'll drown us all.

[CupOfCoffee]

Well, at least they're not trying to add "netrepreneur" to the the dictionary.

I wish there was an easy, fast, probably online multiple choice style way to measure your vocabulary now that I read that thing about 70,000 being the general upper limit.

[VanHalen]

Not too bad. At least it isn't something like "pwnage". Now I can use this in the streets!

[astuarlen]

Oh God, where to begin? Others (with a lot more credibility than myself, Mr. Payack of GLM, or anyone here--professional linguists and lexicographers, in fact) have handled this claptrap many times before (see: Ben Zimmer's most recent (http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=972) and earlier debunking (http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002809.html); a quick coupla points by Grant Barrett (http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/grantbarrett/comments/a_quick_debunking_of_a_language_quack/) for starters).

So, two highlights:

1. There is no way for a word to be "officially admitted" into English. English, in its many forms, has no official arbiter.
2. You can't count the number of words in a language. How do you define a single word? How many times must it be used? Where are the boundaries of English (not to mention the fact that English is spoken in several forms around the globe)?

The circle of the English language has a well-defined centre but no discernible circumference.
—J. A. H. Murray, British lexicographer and the original editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 1888

Ask Oxford on "How many words are there in the English language?" (http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutenglish/numberwords?view=uk)






not surpriseing. hell back in early 2000 they made "unwise" a word after the uninstall prog in Win95
From Merriam-Webster online:

Main Entry:
un·wise
Pronunciation:
\-ˈwīz\
Function:
adjective
Date: before 12th century
: lacking wisdom or good sense : foolish, imprudent
— un·wise·ly adverb
Unwise - two words or one?

So, yeah.

[Omega_Weltall]

oh.. nm then, but i did remember some news report saying that "Unwise is in the dictionary" er something. probably people saying its incorrect English but actually it is.

[joefro]

I like it. I hope it makes it into the English language. Then I don't have to "ignore" noob in spell check lol.

[CelestialBlade]

"Flammable, inflammable, and noninflammable. Why are there three words for that? It either flams or doesn't flam!"

Hey, could be worse.

[hewitt]

Goodness. :/ Why THAT word?

[Dragwind]

This is according to the Global Language Monitor, allegedly. So if we make up a word and get it to be used/advertised 25,000 times by media outlets, you win I guess.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/5285085/One-millionth-English-word-could-be-defriend-or-noob.html

[Kyrith_Ranger_Pso]

flammable is actually not a word. The way I think it came to be so commonly used is because people are lazy and can't even take the time to say a prefix.

[jShazBot]

I saw something about this on TV last week.
Noob is being put in the dictionary because it one of the most said words on the internet or something like that.
I wouldn't be surprised if words like "ROFL" and "LOL" were soon put into the english dictionary.