One of the occupational hazards of being a lexicographer on social media is that you are often subjected to arguments about whether something is a word or not. Lexicographers see these complaints a…
Kory Stamper has a snappy post up at Harmless Drudgery about lexicography and “real” words. Excerpt:
I think [insert reviled word here] isn’t a real word.
Let’s back up. Why do you think it’s not a real word? Because by a linguist’s definition, if it communicates meaning to an audience, then it’s “a real word.” […]
But it’s illogical/ugly/stupid.
Just because you don’t like it doesn’t make it somehow “not real.” This is one of the more absurd notions that people have about language: that the mere dislike of a word invalidates its very existence. […] I hate heat, for instance, and think temperatures above a very dry 80F can just nope right on out of here–but summer arrives every year, like clockwork, just to piss me off. Should my personal feelings about the power of the sun ruin everyone else’s beach vacation? […]
Okay, let’s try this: how do I know when a word isn’t real?
Not to get all ontological and shit, but if it is a signifier of meaning used in the course of communication between people, it’s real. Even if it’s unintelligible to you! I don’t speak Polish, but I’m not going to say that Polish words aren’t real just because I don’t understand them.
You’re making me sound like a massive prick.
What’s the point, really, of declaring that a word isn’t real? It’s ultimately a show of power or superiority over someone else, and so, in that sense, it is the marker of an absolute unit of shittiness. I’ve made my feelings about correcting people’s speech known before, and this is just another variant of it. It centers someone else’s language in your own experience, and it’s ridiculous to think that yours is the default experience for everyone. Language is bigger than just one person! That’s a feature, not a bug!
Perhaps the simplest way to sum this up is: “X is not a real word” is almost always a logical fallacy. Unless we’re talking about literal keysmash (asljfalkfslf is not a real word, but no one really bothers to go about declaring this), what confers real-word-hood is simply people using something as a word, not a dictionary or lexicographer or linguist.
