When does a word become “official” English? Some people say it’s when the word is included in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the multivolume resource that has been evolving for over a century, which currently contains over 200,000 words in current use. It can take some time for a word to become prevalent enough for it to be considered a standard word in English. For example, while the popular musical genre known as “emo” can be traced back to the punk rock bands of the 1980s, the word “emo” was not included in the OED until 2006.

The word “neologism” comes from the Greek roots neo- (meaning “new”) and logos (meaning “word”). A neologism, then, is a new word. Here are some of the new words that were added to the OED in 2009:

• bailout
• blogosphere
• reinstalling
• repaginate

Who hasn’t heard the news of all of the bank and industry bailouts over the past year? It’s certainly been the talk of the blogosphere. In fact, many people get almost all of their news via blogs these days. Several major blogs had to upgrade their systems to handle all the traffic, which frequently involved reinstalling their on-line routers and servers. Many of them changed their formats to be easier for their readers to use, which required them to repaginate their content.

We’re sure all of those words were already familiar to you, and that you hear and use many more neologisms every day. But it’s just as important to explore the richness of the English language and study those words that have proved their worth over the years – the powerful, precise, descriptive words that the Ultimate Vocabulary courses explain in detail.

Many words that end up in the OED start out as slang (like “bonkers,” meaning “crazy”) and it’s important to keep the distinction in mind. Use words that are appropriate to the occasion and the topic. Think about these two sentences:

“He was so lugubrious that it was hard to work with him.”
“I couldn’t relate to my coworker – he was such a drag!”

Both are ways of describing someone who is sorrowful, depressed, or sad, but in general you’d only use the second sentence when speaking with a friend or in a casual conversation. Knowing when to use words is just as important as knowing how to use them. When you’re working on your vocabulary, be sure to practice each word by imaging realistic situations and using natural-sounding sentences, and you’ll soon be an old hat at these new words.