Oxford picked 'big society' as Word of 2010 over vuvuzela and Boris bike. The shortlist is a case study in how English coins, blends and borrows new words.
Posts with tag.: New Words In English
Recyclopath, vegangelical, congreenient: ten green coinages from Urban Dictionary, what they reveal about environmentalism, and why translators dread them.
The OED holds millions of coined words that never caught on, from furgle to wibble, and the reason they failed has nothing to do with quality.