There was a very interesting piece on the BBC morning news yesterday about how Collins, one of the main compilers of dictionaries here in the UK for nearly two hundred years, had set up a new website. This site is intended to make the collection of words in common use easier, since anyone can submit a word they think is valid. Editors at Collins will verify the usage of a word, based on certain criteria (like, has anyone other than the person submitting the word ever used it). Assuming that the word passes the criteria it gets added to the next revision of the dictionary.

There were some interesting examples, many of which can be found here. Bimble, for instance, the definition of which is "Brit (Slang): a wander to pass the time, or to shirk responsibilities", is something I've used for many years since I do seem to do a lot of bimbling. Doofah, which is any small kind of gadget, especially a remote control is also something I'm familiar with, as in "there's too many doofahs in this house". One I hadn't heard of which was highlighted in the report, but interestingly isn't in the dictionary is spoota, an acronym for "something pulled out of thin air"; i.e. a convincing explanation for something with no basis in fact. A key requirement for being a Technology Evangelist is the ability to spoota without missing a beat.

Etymology (the study of the origin and development of words) has always interested me since our language is always evolving and the usage of words goes in and out of fashion just as much as anything else. For example, when I went to Canada for Christmas and stayed with my girlfriends family her three teenage nephews used English in such a way as to make me feel a) old, and b) completely out of touch with popular culture. Almost everything was referred to as "brutal" (I would agree that that was a good description of the weather, but not necessarily applicable to a shot made whilst playing pool). Anything that was deemed good was "sick", which seems somewhat counter intuitive, but is a great example of the way words evolve to have different meanings in different contexts.

Of course, it's not just human languages that evolve in this way; a quick look at the new features in J2SE 5 shows the addition of seven new language features that introduce new syntax and semantics. Thankfully, these changes don't occur at the same pace as in English and are carefully thought out before inclusion.