The truthiness of this article is fantabulous
Aug 27th, 2008 by Waffles
If Stephen Colbert can do it, why can't I?
The Boston Globe ran an article about how the English Language is a user-modifiable technology. For example, when you see a graded paper with a “Not a real word” proofmark on it, what does that mean? What’s going to happen?
Columnist Erin McKean says,
Whenever I see “not a real word” used to stigmatize what is (usually) a perfectly cromulent word, I wonder why the writer felt the need to hang a big sign reading “I am not confident about my writing” on it. What do they imagine the penalty is for using an “unreal” word? A ticket from the Dictionary Police? The revocation (as the joke goes) of your poetic license? A public shaming by William Safire? The irony is that most of these words, without the disclaimer, would pass unnoticed by the majority of readers. (In case you noticed cromulent, that was invented in the 1990s for “The Simpsons.”) Writers who hedge their use of unfamiliar, infrequent, or informal words with “I know that’s not a real word,” hoping to distance themselves from criticism, run the risk of creating doubt where perhaps none would have naturally arisen.
In other words, English is an amorphous, ever-changing language. And the reason so many adults are afraid to write is because rigid stodgy English teachers from their youth told them they HAD to follow so many rules.
Granted, there is a time and a place for everything. Using words like “Bestest” in a blog post is going to be different than in an academic paper. But for normal, everyday writing (even, I would argue, for business-related emails), spice it up a little bit. Be professional, but not dull and uninspired.
Check out that Boston Globe article here. If anything, at least it’s some read-y fun.
Like anything, new coinages ought to be evaluated on their merits. Often the reason for someone using a new word is that the need arose for a precise meaning that no existing word conveyed, but for which a clear word can be cobbled together from existing roots and affixes, or from a novel combination of these into a new metaphor. Good writers strive for clarity; this can usually be attained while staying within the bounds of established usage, but sometimes a damn-the-torpedoes approach is required to produce the desired result.
Overly persnickety English teachers ought to investigate the arbitrariness of their own discipline. German, for example, encourages the creation of ginormous compounds on the fly, and often requires using a preposition to end a sentence with.