The ever-growing English language reached the milestone of 1 million words or phrases Wednesday and, appropriately enough in our technology-obsessed world, "Web 2.0" was the millionth word.
English contains more words than any other language in the world, according to the Austin, Texas-based Global Language Monitor, which made the declaration about Web 2.0.
The Global Language Monitor uses a mathematical formula to track the frequency of words and scans millions of Web sites, including those of 5,000 major print and electronic media outlets, to monitor word usage. The organization declares a word or phrase to be legitimate once it appears 25,000 times in searches.
Web 2.0 officially became the millionth word in the English language at 5:22 a.m. Wednesday, according to the "English Language Wordclock" on the organization's Web site. The organization said a new English word is created every 98 minutes, or approximately 14.7 every day.
Web 2.0, of course, is a term that refers to the next generation of Internet technologies, such as social networking applications and Ajax development techniques, which largely appeared after the dot-com crash in 2001.
Other words and phrases that were admitted to the not-so-exclusive English language club on Wednesday were "slumdog," a derisive term for a child that lives in a slum; "cloud computing," which refers to services delivered through the Internet; and "n00b" (yes, it's spelled with two zeros) which refers to someone who is new and inexperienced, particularly with technology.
Numerous published reports quoted English professors and other linguistics experts criticizing the Global Language Monitor's declaration as a stunt, noting that counting words is a very imprecise, subjective business.
A story on CNN's Web site, for example, quoted Allan Metcalf, an English professor at MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Ill., who cited the example of the word "bear," which has multiple meanings, including the name for the big furry mammal and a directional command such as "bear right at the next light." Metcalf wondered whether bear would count as one word or several.
http://www.crn.com/it-channel/217800...PCKH0CJUNN2JVN
Kinda weird that 'Web 2.0' became the one millionth word in the English language just because it shows up on 25,000 search results.
Maybe we should create a random word and put it on 25,000 sites to create our own word :D
Regards,
Lee
