Some New Words Needed in English

The English language certainly has lots of words. No one knows exactly how many—there are reasons you can't really count, such as uncertainty over what is to be counted as a word. But one estimate is one million words.

Still, new words enter the language continually. New words are coined, supposedly in response to a felt need--although often a perfectly good word for the meaning already exists.

So, in response to some gaps in our vocabulary that I have noticed, I want to suggest some new words.

First, healthierize, meaning to make more healthy. Example: I healthierized this recipe by cutting the fat and salt.

Second, operate (in a new sense, namely to make an opera out of). Example: Mozart operated Beaumarchais' play The Marriage of Figaro.

Third: middle classify and middle classification. Example: Egg McMuffin is a middle classification of Eggs Benedict.

Fourth: cattlectomy, meaning to stop eating beef. Example: Since I underwent my cattlectomy, I have not been in McDonald's at all.

Fifth: Did you know that there is no word for a person who plays the horn (such as the French horn in a symphony orchestra)? A person who plays the violin is a violinist. Someone who plays the piano is a pianist. But there is no word hornist. I propose--again simply creating a new sense for an existing word, as I did with operate—that someone who plays the horn be called a horny.

Copyright © 2011 by Richard Stein