Well, maybe not invent, but creating? coming up with? Has anyone ever done this? How do you go about getting it in the dictionaries? Is there like a patent office for words or something? I emailed Merriam Webster and am awaiting their reply. Should be interesting. Here is my word: religicist ... the other day I was thinking there is no one word to describe that sentiment ... and VOILA! a word was born. You can have child-words derived from it too! eg: religicism ... 'Sir, that is a clear case of religicism' It flows so well I'm so proud! --rockit
Looks like you can take a course to find out, right there in Houston too. Fantabulous! http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~ling215/NewWords/index.html
I don't think I would need a linguistics class ... I'm not trying to learn the intricacies of language, just want to get a new word to my name Its a valid word, in my mind anyways, it fits all the requirements, and it has a similar word in use as it is. Behad ... that site was hilarious!! and Dreamcasting is a really nice word too! --rockit
Rich Hall wrote about 8 books of his "sniglets" Here is an Amazon list: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/s...glets&search-type=ss&bq=1/103-6577088-9111840
Scrabble between the hours of midnight and 4 am will create some interesting new words. My best so far is "Narclid" - my friends will at least bust it out to make fun of me. I have no idea what I told them the definition was but it wasn't convincing.
Ok, so I emailed the folks over at Merriam-Webster to see what they say, and I actually got a response from them today! It seems like my word does have a shot at being in the dictionary! Here is what they said: HEHEHEHE!!! So, now all of you out there ... start using the word wherever appropriate! Thanks! --rockit
Kwyjibo: A big, dumb, balding North American ape with no chin. BTW, what would the definition of religicist be if it were in the dictionary? A person that studies religion? I always thought that was a theologian...
A-Train ... it wouldn't be someone who studies religion, it would be a person who is against some religion, like the equivalent of 'racist' but dealing with religion, not race. Is there already one word for this? --rockit
just put the prefix "anti" in front of what ever religion you're talking about, like "anti-semite" Now, this word, the way you are using it, sounds like a person that is against ALL religion, for which I think the word "atheist" would be applicable. Of course, the word "infidel" is a person that is against a prevailing religion. So, if I went over to Afganistan and set up a Baptist church, I would probably be considered an infidel. Besides, I doubt that you'll get credit for "creating" a word, since it is almost impossible to trace a word to a single person. I guess you'll have to find another way to get your 15 minutes of fame.
Well, I didn't actually want 'credit' like I created the word ... but more for like fun purposes ... like from that episode in Veronicas Closet, when that guy creates a word and everyone starts using it... obviously, in the dictionary, it won't say 'religicist [adj] (created by xyz)'
letereligicistinthadickshunary - this means "a preference of having the word 'religicist' in the dictionary'". dude, religicist has gotta be a word if it's got another word named after it.
I don't mean to get geeky, but since I'm suffering through a linguistics course, you all will suffer, too. Rokkit, if I interpret correctly "-cist" in "religicist" is derived from the prefix "-cist" in "racist"? If this is the case, you did, at least in linguistic terms, use the right test. However, "-cist" is not a morpheme [read: the smallest unit of meaning in a language. It also must be able to be used in other base words w/o loss of meaning]. The correct morphemes in "racist" are [race + -ist] and in "religicist" would seem to be [religion + istic] in the sense of styISTIC. So they don't really satisfy the test. In terms of creating new words, people do this a lot. The easiest way would be of the inflectional or derivational morpheme variety. Take, for example, the word e-mail. Tradionally, the word was seen as a noun, but our grammar has turned the word into a verb such as I/(s)he e-mailed, is e-mailing has/had e-mailed you today. What we have done here is used the inflectional verb morphemes [-s], [-ing], [-en] to make new words from the base e-mail. Of course, e-mail itself is a new word that still hasn't found its way into some dictionaries. The other way we make new words is by using derivational morphemes (read what you did). Take the word happy. We simply use our understanding of morphemes in order to create several words from that one word. Unhappy, for example. The harder way to create a new word, of course, is to coin a new morpheme. Take the prefix [-gate]. The morpheme is now used widely to represent scandal. Water-gate, Monica-gate, etc. Coin one of these and you'll definately be famous. P.S., if this is confusing at all, now you know how I feel.
If I were talking about someone with a prejudice against a particular religion, I would do something like that: anti-christian, anti-muslim, whatever. If it is a prejudice against religion generally, I would say anti-theist. If you want my honest, brutal opinion, it is that this word can't really catch on because it has some sort of linguistic structural flaw (reading kbm's post might be useful if it doesn't get too boring). 'Religicist' doesn't manage to connote a philosophical position. -ist is used for occupations and for philosophical adherences. 'Religicist' somehow suggests an occupation like 'scientist' or 'taxidermist' and not a philosophy like 'environmentalist', 'activist', or 'supremicist'.
