Dictionary Embraces Open Innovation for New Words
The Chambers Dictionary is going to invite members of the public to suggest new words for its 13th edition.
It’s an open innovation approach that has been around for centuries. In the 18th century, the Oxford English Dictionary collated words from thousands of English-speaking people across the world.
The English dictionary was born in 1604 and word collators were often teachers and writers who worked on their own. But language is rich and continuously evolving and the job soon became too big for a handful of people.
“Chambers has always taken into account reader suggestions for new words, and we are excited that this new online crowdsourcing will enable us to cast our net as widely as possible,” said Sam Richardson, publisher of the Chambers Dictionary.
Word Submissions
Nominated words can be sent to [email protected] with the subject Word Source by 6th October, or submitted via the Chambers Facebook page or Twitter account. The Chambers editorial team will have the final say on which words will be included.
New Words
The dictionary features more than 600,000 words and the last edition was in 2011. Some of the submissions then reflected the concerns and trends of our age. For example, the global recession led to inclusions such as “double dip” and toxic assets”.
Internet and social media were represented by “e-reader” and “unfriend”, and “crowdsourcing” made its first appearance between the dictionary’s covers.
Other dictionaries that crowdsource new words are Collins and Merriam Webster.
A new word is created every 98 minutes – that’s a crop of about 14.7 words a day. So which new ones will make the final cut?
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