Thread: New words
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Old 05-19-2012, 09:15 AM   #3
gmw
cacoethes scribendi
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Asimov is noted as the first to use the word "robotics", but it is a fairly intuitive extension to "robot", apparently coined by Karel Čapek and that was understandable as the base of words such as robota and robotnik (or so I read on dictionary.com).

Such word creation is fairly common in science fiction and fantasy, but these aren't quite the same thing, are they? They're mostly names for new things or new or developing concepts. Boredom was hardly a new concept. But I have to ask: how did readers know what Dickens meant? What was the derivation that allowed them to understand this first usage? (I can understand how "around the clock" and "red tape" may be understandable, given context and familiarity with the period, but boredom?)

I had need for a good word for an existing concept in my current writing, but I went to another language to get it (Sanskrit). So I guess that means no, I didn't have what it takes to invent a new word, I borrowed one (actually several as it turned out) from elsewhere.
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