We must not forget that design on the web is to inform and communicate. With this it is the words, sounds and images used that achieve this successfully. As visual culture highlights, we can as designers essentially influence the meaning of something by the way we design and present it.
Words are used to create meaning and with this resulting in an understanding of things. It is with these words that we inform
others and provide instructions. In society we have control of meanings and interpretation and we can collectively create new signs, new meaning by representation. “We can all ‘agree’ to allow words to carry somewhat different meanings…” Hall (1997 p.23-24)
New words and terminologies are constantly being added to the Oxford English Dictionary and many of these are from the influence of technology advancements. To illustrate this, recent additions to the Oxford Dictionaries Online (2013) show
how technology truly is setting the pace in how we communicate in todays generation with words such as “…gossip mill, friend zone, tweetable, and social sharing…touchless all included.” Oxford Dictionaries Online (2013).
As Kaufman (2013) mentions in his article, Why we need to invent new words, “Do not be afraid to make up your own words.” He continues to advise “…you must be careful. Every new word must be crafted. It has to have a purpose, a need. A new word cannot be created with a fisted bash to a keyboard. Like every other word in the language, your new word should be a mashup of pre-existing words. You can steal bits from Latin and German, like everybody else did. Or you can use contemporary English in a new way. But you must capture something that already exists.”
To give you an incite in to the kind of words entering the dictionary these days Kaufman lists some of the best:
Blursing noun. When an event, gift, or circumstance presents qualities and consequences that are simultaneously positive and negative: Jenny was made partner but it was a blursing because her hours were so long that her husband left her.
Digippear verb. To use computer technology as a technique to avoid unwanted or feared issues and conversations: I tried to talk to him about his taxes but he digippeared into Facebook.
Overchill verb. To use modern air-conditioning systems to excess, especially in offices: Yes, I know it’s August and I’m wearing a cardigan, but they really overchill my cubicle.
A familiar example as illustrated by Alex Horne (2010) “Take ‘bootylicious’, a striking adjective that recently succeeded in scaling the dictionary walls, thanks to a solitary soul called Beyoncé Knowles. Yes. She did it. Beyoncé got a word in the dictionary.
Where?
So to think of where I could place these words once create the obvious comes to mind, Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter and there is the Urban Dictionary. But It is going to need more than that but lets get cracking on forming these words
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Bibliography
Recent updates to Oxford Dictionaries. February 2013. http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/what-s-new
Hall (1997) Representation: Cultural representation and signifying processes. Ch 1 Representation, meaning and language. pp 15-29
Alex Horne (2010) Alex Horne – How to invent a word. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/comedy/features/alex-horne–how-to-invent-a-word-1900477.html
Andrew Kaufman. Why we need to invent new words. The Guardian, Monday 11 March 2013. http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2013/mar/11/why-we-need-invent-new-words
