Merriam-Webster Announces Top Ten Favorite Words (Not in the Dictionary)

SPRINGFIELD, MASS., May 16, 2005 — Are you a lingweenie? According to users of the popular language Web site Merriam-Webster Online (www.Merriam-Webster.com), this is a word for "a person incapable of producing neologisms"—or, in common parlance, somebody who can't make up new words. And if that describes you, you may very well be in the minority, as Merriam-Webster discovered this past week in its first "What's Your Favorite Word (That's Not in the Dictionary?)" online survey. Thousands of non-dictionary words and their definitions were submitted over a period of approximately two weeks, rivaling the response to 2004's "What's Your Favorite Word?" survey, when Merriam-Webster Online visitors overwhelmingly decreed defenestration ("a throwing of a person or thing out of a window)" to be their favorite word actually found in the pages of the dictionary.

You could say the results from 2005's survey were ginormous (bigger than gigantic and bigger than enormous) which was, in fact, the word that took the #1 spot in the "Top Ten Words (Not in the Dictionary)" list revealed today at: http://www.merriam-webster.com/info/favorite.htm

"Projects like this remind us once again of the deep fascination people have for words in their language, and how much fun it is to express this interest" said Merriam-Webster President and Publisher John M. Morse. "People make up words in a number of ways. Perhaps the most popular method is to blend two already-existing words to form a new one: (gription—a blend of grip and friction to describe 'the purchase gained by friction;' snirt—the combination of snow and dirt to describe 'snow that is dirty'). And, as our current survey demonstrated again and again, people often coin entirely new words, often with very funny results."

Morse readily admits that Merriam-Webster's "What's Your Favorite Word (That's Not in the Dictionary)?" survey was conducted "all in the spirit of good fun." Actually getting a new word into the dictionary is more serious business. "A new word or sense is added to the dictionary only when enough evidence has been collected to show that it can be regarded as an established part of the English language," he said. "To be considered a serious candidate for entry into the dictionary, a word must usually appear in a variety of sources, indicating breadth of use, and usually must be recorded over a period of time, indicating that the word has staying power."

So who knows? If enough people support ginormous, (or any of the other new words submitted to Merriam-Webster, for that matter) paving the way for wide-spread use and subsequent publication over a period of time, one of these days it may drop its "Not in the Dictionary" status. Until then, for all you lingweenies out there—try to get over your unprintedaphobia (a fear of words not in the dictionary).

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Merriam-Webster Inc. acquired the rights to revise and publish Noah Webster's dictionaries in 1843. Since then, Merriam-Webster has maintained an ongoing commitment to innovation, scholarship, and love of language. Today, the company continues as the leader in both print and electronic language reference publishing with reference products, learning tools, and word games.