Re: (Slight) HUMOUR: Banned Words
Because these words are created by people with no affinity for language who don't realize that there's a perfectly acceptable word already. ;)Except, of course, the affinity of using it every day. :-)
Word coining, both the preposterous and the useful, has a long history in English. My current desk calendar has one obsolete word per day, and could easily have ten or fifteen without exausting the words that have come in and out of fashion in the last five hundred years. Apparently, speakers of English have never been content to use the language without innovations. The only ones who seem hesitant to innovate are the so-called educated, who get infected with the prescriptive grammar neurosis, and are afraid to experiment - which is why many new words come from speakers of non-standard English.
As for a perfectly acceptable word already existing, perhaps the problem is that there are usually at least half a dozen. English has been rich in synonyms since Anglo-Saxon times. Now, in many cases, there is no single word that is appropriate. With so many possible choices already existing, maybe it's not surprising that people see nothing wrong with adding another one.
You can't really prevent coining. Nor is there much point in trying; natural selection has a way of weeding out the ridiculous or useless words in a decade or so without help. Anyway, word coining is probably a sign that English is a healthy, living language. After all, I don't suppose that many new words have been added to Latin recently ;-). About all you can do as a techical writer is to avoid the more obscure or ridiculous words so that your documents aren't dated or ludicrous.
--
Bruce Byfield 604.421.7177 bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com
"And still they stand triumphant and immense,
The silent lines of marble monuments,
And soon the writhing seas will cease to writhe,
The specks of gray ash float to rest, and there will be
Perfect peace...complete calm...the maximum of - Order."
- Leon Rosselson, "The World Police"
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