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This Word Does Not Exist

thisworddoesnotexist.com

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Re: This Word Does Not Exist

#41

Post by drdeca »

deafpolygon wrote: post #13

If it has been spoken, it is a word.

I think it maybe needs to have been spoken with the intent to communicate or express a somewhat specific thing.

Like, a couple seconds ago I vocalized the sounds “xzoubadoo”, but I didn’t attach any particular meaning to it, it was just an arbitrary collection of syllables, “spoken” to demonstrate a point, but without the intent that the sounds stand for anything.

I don’t think “xzoubadoo” is really a word. At least, not yet. I suppose one might (likely temporarily/in an ad-hoc way) assign it a meaning as a response to this comment, but I have not done so.

Re: This Word Does Not Exist

#42

Post by goatlover »

ghostoftiber wrote: post #39

I don't really understand this myself. Language is either comprised of loan-words, which are words which follow another language's rules, or it has its own rules for composing words. I tried a bunch of reloads and got plausible words, mostly following latin and greek word roots with some extra decorators. Lots of un- and -ers. Simply because the word isn't popular enough to be in a dictionary doesn't mean the word do…

A word only exists when other people start using the word. Language is social.

Re: This Word Does Not Exist

#43

Post by [deleted] »

goatlover wrote: post #42
ghostoftiber wrote: post #39

I don't really understand this myself. Language is either comprised of loan-words, which are words which follow another language's rules, or it has its own rules for composing words. I tried a bunch of reloads and got plausible words, mostly following latin and greek word roots with some extra decorators. Lots of un- and -ers. Simply because the word isn't popular enough to be in a dictionary doesn't mean the word do…

A word only exists when other people start using the word. Language is social.

[deleted]

Re: This Word Does Not Exist

#45

Post by mikeryan »

Would love to see this used in a spelling bee. From watching the last few years of the televised Scripps Spelling Bee it seems like most high level contestants can spell the words, not from memory so much as from constructing them from their root languages.

Re: This Word Does Not Exist

#46

Post by Culonavirus »

tines wrote: post #23
snalty wrote: post #16

I got "microdosing" which I'm pretty sure is a word. The definition was new though: "the injection of small amounts of a drug to a microdialysis unit"

I got "professor", so it seems like it can emit words that do exist.

I got "hobogeography"... that is not a word, but it should be, haha

Re: This Word Does Not Exist

#47

Post by dr_orpheus »

I feel like this could be a fun tool if you are writing some sort of speculative fiction and want to come up with reasonable sounding words with a plausible explanation and basis in Latin or Greek roots.

Reminds me a bit of Anathem by Neal Stephenson. A lot of made up words based on smashing a combination of two other words/word roots (sometimes from different languages) together.

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