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Inventing new words How are new words formed?If you know how new words are formed, you may be able to work out what they mean. All of the words in this section can be found in OALD (seventh edition). Prefixes and suffixes Prefixes and suffixes are added to existing words to give a new meaning and sometimes a new part of speech. A merger is the joining of two or more organizations or businesses into one; adding the prefix de- to give demerger makes it the opposite, the splitting of a business, etc. into parts. The word may change part of speech in the process: skill is a noun, but reskill (= learn new skills) is a verb. The suffix –ize is also used to turn nouns into verbs: dollarize (= to use the US dollar as currency). New prefixes and suffixes can develop from existing words: the new prefixes cyber- and e- (both meaning ‘relating to electronic communication networks’) produce cybernaut and cybersquatting, e-pal and e-zine.
Compounds Compounds are the commonest type of new word, when two existing words are combined to give a new meaning. It is not hard to guess what an asylum seeker is, or home-schooling, if you know what the elements mean. One new combination inspires another. You probably know hardware and software, but do you know liveware and wetware, formed on the same principles? New words can be easier to remember if they rhyme, for example chick flick or shock jock, or alliterate (= repeat the same first letter), for example pester power and drag-and-drop. These new compounds are often imaginative or humorous, because they show connections between things that seem to be very different. Some examples are fashion victim (= someone who takes fashion too seriously), golden handcuffs (= money used to encourage someone to stay in their job), and industrial-strength (used to talk about things other than industrial products). I’ve got an industrial-strength hangover.
Alterations to old words Old words are given new forms to make them sound more fashionable or humorous. For example, they are shortened, like prezzie (= present) and barbie (= barbecue). Sometimes the second part of a compound word may be omitted, like cell (= cellphone). In other cases the initial letters of a compound may be run together to form a new word, such as JPEG (from Joint Photographic Experts Group), pronounced /  d eIpeg/.Sometimes words are altered by being used as a different part of speech. An example of this is text, which was originally only a noun, but is now often used as a verb: Text me when you know what time you’ll be arriving.
Proper names New products which are introduced are another source of new words, especially if the type of product becomes particularly associated with one brand. This has happened, for example, with Bluetooth™ and Palmcorder™. Sometimes these brand names become so well-known that they can even be used as verbs: If you don’t know what it means, you can google it. Names of people or fictional characters can also sometimes be taken up and used as normal words: He lives a Walter Mitty existence (= he is not in touch with reality).
Phrasal verbs Phrasal verbs are formed by adding an adverb or a preposition to an existing verb, for example drill down and click through in computing language. There’s a display to show how far you've drilled down. From this page you can click through to all kinds of interesting stuff. A completely new verb may be formed by adding the adverb to a noun or an adjective, for example page through sth: She paged through the report looking for her name. We’ll have to scope out the project before we can estimate the time it’ll take. Phrasal verbs are often turned into compound nouns and adjectives using a hyphen: We improved our click-through rate by 30%. We provide a walk-through (= a guide) to familiarize users with the dictionary.
Portmanteau words Portmanteau words, also called blends, are similar to compounds but may include only part of one or both of the original words in the new word: documentary + soap (opera) = docusoap. The figure they’ve given is nothing more than a guesstimate (= guess + estimate).
Loan words Loan words are words that are borrowed from other languages. They often refer to foreign things – food, sports – that become popular or well-known in English-speaking countries. Sashimi (= slices of raw fish served with sauce) is from Japanese, capoeira (= a Brazilian martial art) from Portuguese and hijab (= a head covering worn by some Muslim women) from Persian and Arabic.
New meanings New meanings for old words: sometimes the need for a new word can be filled by extending the meaning of a word that already exists. For example, in a business context a beauty contest is an occasion on which several competing companies or people try to persuade somebody to use their services; and wallpaper in computing is the background that you have on your computer screen.
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