Words for the Oxford English Dictionary

Apparently a million words are now featured in the English language with new ones being invented every day.

The Oxford English Dictionary is, of course, the bible of English and it lists about 300,000 words.

The effects on speech of strokes are well known and documented. Many unfortunate stroke victims either lose their speech or encounter great difficulties. It is a blessing that Sharon has not been affected in this department and “jabbers on,” as she says.

However, a curious development since her stroke is that her vocabulary has actually expanded. “I was dreaming,” she said recently. “However, it was nothing untoward.” Now “untoward” is a word she would never have used in the past. She also uses long words, like “prestigiously” which, again, were not before in her everyday conversation.

Sharon has even spontaneously invented completely new words.

When the fingers in her left hand started to show some movement recently, she described the sensation as a “twingle.” This is probably a mix of twitch and tingle.

Looking at the picture of Bruno the Labrador puppy, she said he would be doing lots of “sniggling.” This is probably a mix of snuffling and wiggling, which is what puppies do.

Perhaps these new should be forwarded to the august editors of the OED.

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©Phillip Bruce