Web 2.0 is the One Millionth Word to Enter The English Language

Via Ars Technica

According to the Global Language Monitor, the English language this week crossed a threshold as the “one millionth word” entered the lexicon. That word? “Web 2.0.”

Global Language Monitor has a methodology by which it measures “new” words entering into English. Though “Web 2.0” has been around for years, GLM’s method of counting requires “a minimum of 25,000 citations with the necessary breadth of geographic distribution and depth of citations.”

But the larger point, one that goes far beyond the Million Word March, is that the vibrancy of English, which began in the late 16th century, continues undiminshed. The language has seen an explosion of words ever since the “new learning” of the Renaissance imported thousands of Greek and Latin terms into English, and a massive stock of French words still lingers in the language thanks to the Norman Conquest.

So today’s international linguistic diversity is nothing new for the language. Many of the most recent words are American rather than from the UK, while others are Indian (“slumdog” and “Jai Ho!” were just behind “Web 2.0”). By some measures, English now has more words than any other in the world.