Origin Worryment is a word which currently does not appear in the English dictionary but was used in a podcast published by PCPro on Thursday 2nd July 2009, this podcast was recorded on July 1st 2009. The word was used by Jonathan Bray whilst discussing the battery life of the recenly released iphone 3gs this was followed by a brief discussion about the existence of the word culminating with Jonathan stating that as he had used the word and it was now in the public domain it is possible that 'worryment' could appear in the dictionary within the next three years. As an interesting end point, the iphone 3gs received two 'hot' votes and two 'not' votes in the 'hot hardware of the week'. Points Raised The discussion that the use of this previously unknown word raised prompts thought about the dictionary itself and of how the word which are contained within it are mearly words which at one point were initially used by an individual and picked up by others around them. This, if the local use of the word was high enough, could cause the word to enter the common volcabulary of an entire region. Continued high levels of use of such a word within a region could lead to the word being adopted nationally which may possibly prompt it's entry to the dictionary of the country in which it is used. This action, often seen as a "higher recognition" of the said word, may prompt for literal translations into other languages further allowing the spread of the use of the word. The main issue here seems to be, when does a word become an actual word and stop being non-existent.
|