Not a word?
Im wondering. Is Web 2.0 actually a word? Or a word and two numbers.
Same as Jai Ho is two words
One millionth English 'word' is... Web 2.0
It's official: The one millionth English "word" is "Web 2.0", which secured the the crown earlier today, beating "Jai Ho!"*, "n00b" and "Slumdog" in the race to linguistic glory in the process. That's according to the Global Language Monitor, which was uncannily able to predict back in May the exact moment this milestone would …
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Wednesday 10th June 2009 15:30 GMT Raspy32
Re:Not a word?
Well exactly - it's not a word but a phrase, it's the already recognised word "Web" followed by a whole number expressed with a single decimal place.
So if they've actually included "words" such as this in order to make up the million, we're probably realistically at around 750K true "words".
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Wednesday 10th June 2009 15:46 GMT Nimrod
Complete Tosh
Given Websters and the OED have over 600,000 words each and there is approx 30% of words in each that are not in the other lust these 2 dictionaries give us close to 1m words if we then add on the unique words in the many specialist dictionaries then English passed the 1m mark a long time ago.
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Wednesday 10th June 2009 19:50 GMT Anonymous Coward
Suggestion
Since phrases are fair game for this, can we know where "Bulgarian Air-Bags" appears in this list, or if it hasn't made it yet, can we all start saying "Bulgarian Air-Bags" a lot more please? I just happen to like the term "Bulgarian Air-Bags" and "Bulgarian Air-Bags" deserve their places.
There, 5 more to add to the count for "Bulgarian Air-Bags"
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Wednesday 10th June 2009 19:50 GMT Anonymous Coward
Eh?
Who the feck says 'Jai Ho', apart from in reference to the film/song?
Am I missing something here?
Ok, a quick google reveals it means 'may victory be yours', but still.. who's saying it so often that it's become a fecking word now? (and one word at that?!)
I guess I'm moving in all the wrong circles..
*makes mental note to work it into casual conversation at the pub later*
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Wednesday 10th June 2009 19:50 GMT Scott A. Brown
Words with numbers in...
...aren't words, surely? Otherwise 'Derby County 0' would've got into the dictionary last year. A 2 word phrase such as 'cloud computing' isn't a word either.
Seriously though, when I first read about this 1,000,000th word thing I was quite interested. I didn't realise it was going to be complete bollocks.
I still remember when 'bonk' made it into the dictionary (though not my Firefox spellchecker, I notice, along with Firefox and spellchecker). Now THAT was news.
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Wednesday 10th June 2009 20:13 GMT Anonymous Coward
@ Nimrod
I find myself thinking that might not terribly well qualified to comment upon matters of the English language, given the various errors of grammar, syntax and style your post manages to so succinctly comprise. I would also criticise your punctuation, but its complete absence bar a solitary full stop rather renders this exercise futile.
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Wednesday 10th June 2009 20:13 GMT jake
From their own FAQ ...
"Q. Do you count variations of words such as run, runs and running as separate words?
A. GLM counts only headwords, so run, runs, and running are only counted once."
So "Web 2.0" is just a variation of "Web", then, and not a word of it's own?
Paul JJ Payack is a puerile, self-serving idiot. Ignore him. Most real linguists do.
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Wednesday 10th June 2009 20:17 GMT Camilla Smythe
Yup, Sorry About That.....
I was the millionth visitor to a website for the chance of a BMW and the answer to the question was WEB 2.0
It's a bit of a trick question tho'
A modern WEB 2.0 internet term is
A) WEB 2.0
B) BMW
C) AUDI
I picked A), that will be my IQ being above the rest, and got an offer of a holiday. Clicked the back button and picked B) BMW and got offered a holiday so I clicked the back button and asked for an AUDI and got the offer of a holiday.
WEB2.0 holidays are a bit complicated involving lots of complicated stuff.
Hey! Yo! and stuff.
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Wednesday 10th June 2009 20:17 GMT Anonymous Coward
f**ck...
"F*ck the f*cking f*ckers who had the f*cking idea of f*cking enlarge the f*cking size of ye olde 'f*cking dictionary with f*cking neologisms."
See, plenty of meaning, very few words. Most of them aren´t really words *per se* they are "terms". "Cloud computing" would be two words, not one.
F*cktards.
Enough said.
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Wednesday 10th June 2009 20:19 GMT darkmooink
Results of about 76,300,000 for "WEB 2.0"
how many of them are classed as "deployments in the media, social networking sites, and other hotbeds of linguistic creation" need to be less than 0.3333% for it to only have just hit 250,000 and that is only the web based ones, what about all the newspapers and mags?
ha what a joke
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Wednesday 10th June 2009 20:19 GMT Jonathan Richards 1
Language Hegemony
Payack was on BBC Radio this morning, talking about how this means that English has become "the global language". I hope this doesn't align with the view that I have heard expressed, though not, to be fair, by him, that English is now so widespread that everyone should learn and use it. If we have a vote [1], I think we'll find that we settle on Chinese. And of course the French will be speaking French right up to the point that we make the planet uninhabitable by humans.
[1] Especially since, on the most recent showing, almost all UK speakers of English will not be motivated to get off their arses and put a cross on a ballot slip in any event. There's 50 million votes lost, right there.
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Wednesday 10th June 2009 23:20 GMT Alan Dougherty
Hoon
'Accept a neologism "once it's clocked up 25,000 deployments in the media, social networking sites, and other hotbeds of linguistic creation"'
So when does 'Hoon' get a mention then? I think there are plenty of hoons out there that should be rewarded.
In the words of Brick Vader.. 'You fucking Hoon'.
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Wednesday 10th June 2009 23:20 GMT Anonymous Coward
once upon a time
people did useful things with their time, now all we do is waste it.
So in the spirit ....
"Bulgarian Air-Bags" "Bulgarian Air-Bags""Bulgarian Air-Bags""Bulgarian Air-Bags""Bulgarian Air-Bags""Bulgarian Air-Bags""Bulgarian Air-Bags""Bulgarian Air-Bags""Bulgarian Air-Bags""Bulgarian Air-Bags""Bulgarian Air-Bags""Bulgarian Air-Bags""Bulgarian Air-Bags""Bulgarian Air-Bags""Bulgarian Air-Bags""Bulgarian Air-Bags""Bulgarian Air-Bags""Bulgarian Air-Bags""Bulgarian Air-Bags""Bulgarian Air-Bags""Bulgarian Air-Bags""Bulgarian Air-Bags""Bulgarian Air-Bags""Bulgarian Air-Bags""Bulgarian Air-Bags""Bulgarian Air-Bags""Bulgarian Air-Bags""Bulgarian Air-Bags""Bulgarian Air-Bags""Bulgarian Air-Bags""Bulgarian Air-Bags""Bulgarian Air-Bags""Bulgarian Air-Bags""Bulgarian Air-Bags""Bulgarian Air-Bags"
would "Bulgarian-Aired-Bulgarian-Bags" be yet another neologism ?
boy this is fun, I can talk utter tosh, and it might make it into a "dick-shone-hairy" somewhere.
there's a few more "Bulgarian Air-Bags" mate , so it's well on it's way to being a "neologism"
just think about the unnecessary CO2 released into the atomsphere , serving up the tripe that I've just written. Al Gore would be pleased.
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Thursday 11th June 2009 00:44 GMT Martin Greenaway
How do retards like this get publicity?
This guy got coverage on the front page of CNN, on Newsnight, and on BBC this morning. Irrespective of the irony of claiming to be a linguistic reference whilst counting "web 2.0", "jai ho" and "carbon neutral" as WORDS, and ignoring their unwillingness to publish the exact method for inducting new terms, it gets plastered all over the media.
I really wish I knew his secret, so that I could use it to publicise worthwhile causes. In the meantime, I can't get an article on Wikipedia without independent coverage that doesn't come from a primary source, i.e., people who know what the fuck they are talking about.
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Thursday 11th June 2009 05:45 GMT GrantB
@Alan Dougherty Hoon
Er, Hoon is in the dictionary, at least in the New Zealand / Australian English dictionaries (see
http://www.reference.com/search?q=Hoon). There are plenty of other words in various dialects of English, which are valid English in regional contexts but not accepted world-wide.
I don't get the most of the complaints. Words come & go; if they are useful they are retained. Also, if you open your crusty old Oxford English dictionary you will find 'English words' like 'de jour' in there; it has always been acceptable to import words wholesale from other languages, and to have multiple part words. Admittedly I can't think of any old words that used numbers as well, but change is not always bad. Trying to express the new wave of social/interactive websites 'Web 2.0' will do me better than a clunky description.
I would rather than English keeps get bastardized with new imports like 'Web 2.0' or by the many terms coined by The Reg, than trying to force 'proper' English like some of the French/German attempts to stop English words creeping in.
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Thursday 11th June 2009 08:36 GMT tiggertaebo
who pays this guys wages?
you'd think a linguist (cunning or otherwise) would know the difference between a "word" and a "phrase"
*sigh*
the phrase Web 2.0 already makes me want to go on a mission to re-educate people with a taser - now I also feel the need to leave a time capsule apologising to future civilisations and to try and convince them that we weren't all feckless morons.
Mine's the one with the one with the Texas PD - issue taser in the pocket.
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Thursday 11th June 2009 11:57 GMT Sarah Bee
Re: Lazy journos at El Reg get pwned shock...
Ahem.
"And before you lot start protesting at Global Language Monitor's millionth word count, we're fully aware that linguists of weight have dismissed the whole thing as a load of old cobblers."
What we do need a new word or phrase for is the act of allowing a comment through so as to provoke a hail of RTFA derision and suchlike from the other commentards. To thrungle? To collosseum?
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Thursday 11th June 2009 18:50 GMT Lost in India
@Sooty
From the department of the bloody obvious. English has nicked from hindi, as from every other language you have come in contact with (as we all do). From avatar, bandana, bangle, chit, cot, bungalow to sentry, shampoo, thug and toddy.
If you should purge all words not from "Celts, Anglo-Saxons, Danes, Norse and closely related kindred peoples" you would get a very short dictionary indeed. Oh..they are all Indo-European languages? Ok, let’s stick to grunts then.
The Paris connection? Kama Sutra obviously.
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Friday 12th June 2009 13:41 GMT Anonymous Coward
Total ballcocks
There's nothing "official" about it! No dictionary, manual, quasi-governmental body, dubious 'committee' or even anonymous bureaucrat has the authority to declare what is and what is not an English word. That privilege belongs solely to native speakers of the language, and that includes me and, most likely, you.
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Friday 12th June 2009 15:32 GMT Anonymous Coward
More new words desperately needed
Sounds like a ploy to sell updated dictionaries to me. So here's a few to help 'em along.
Computter - Antiquated PC used to knock golf balls through holes in the floor
Purrrinter - Peripheral device used as a resting place by cats
Cereal Sniper - Person who knocks boxes from the shelves in supermarkets
Java the Hutt - Lead developer who insists on using 12 lines of code instead of 5 (in a different language)
Acadaemic - Person who beleives they know best but rarely do
Maniac Miner - DB admin who's been around since the early 80's
Frankingstein - Ugly dude who works in the post room
Imparsonator - Regular person who dresses like the clergy for reasons unknown but may involve young boys
I could go on but its friday and nearly home time too :)
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