vocabulary - What are the criteria to adopt new words into English?


Long time no see is a typical example for Chinglish, though it is said that long time no see has been accepted by the mainstream English speakers.


Recently, there is a neologism movement in the Mainland, and a few new Chinglish words have been invented to demonstrate the characteristics of the Mainland.


The most outstanding examples (in my opinion) are:




  • shitizen - a citizen without citizen rights




  • freedamn - the freedom for shitizens (no freedom)




  • democrazy - the democracy for shitizens (no democracy)




  • smilence - the speeches under the freedamn of speech (ref)




  • z-turn - to make effort in vain (zheteng (Pinyin))




Here are my questions. Has there ever been any neologism movement in the history of English? What are the criteria to adopt new words into English?



Answer



For a phrase to be adopted into a language, enough people have to start using it. There is no set of criteria beyond popularity.


There is no way to force a phrase into someone's language at an individual level and to make sure it means what you want it to mean.


Think of words and phrases as if they are mental viral symbionts. They inhabit your brain to help you communicate and live on your use of them. If they are of no use, they will die and they will not become part of your language.


If lots of people around you use a phrase then it will gain traction in the language of your society, like a cold that spreads around an office, and possibly further depending on how well travelled people in your society are and how useful the phrase is outside of your society.


For a phrase to be put into a dictionary, that's a different matter.


As for a neologism movement, I don't believe there is an explicit one, but OED and the like do look out for new words and phrases to include for future editions.


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