I heard that all words were just made up, but the cutoff for new words ended a while ago. That's right, if you can't find a reference to a word in a book written no later than 19th century (in English, by a man, preferably aristocratic), we're taking that word away.
That's not it really. It's the popularity of the word that gets it in a dictionary.
If I say "grissmald" is a word I made to describe a grape dipped in hydrochloric acid, I'm not gonna expect people to understand it or for dictionary to accept it.
I heard that all words were just made up, but the cutoff for new words ended a while ago. That's right, if you can't find a reference to a word in a book written no later than 19th century (in English, by a man, preferably aristocratic), we're taking that word away.
That's not it really. It's the popularity of the word that gets it in a dictionary.
If I say "grissmald" is a word I made to describe a grape dipped in hydrochloric acid, I'm not gonna expect people to understand it or for dictionary to accept it.