Recently, a peruser of our website contacted our President, Rene Petrin, to point out that we use the term ‘mentoree’ when in fact, he said, “the correct term is ‘mentee.'”
Rene’s response was this: “There is nothing that prevents anyone from being creative. I decided to use a word that specifies how my approach to mentoring is slightly different from others.”
The term ‘mentoree’ illustrates that Rene’s approach to mentoring is different from the status quo. Creative? Yes. Forward thinking? We think so.
This exchange prompted us to think about other words that were created (recently and not so recently) and have become part of not only main stream street language, but also bonafide, new words in the Oxford English dictionary.
Have you ever thought about where these words came from? Let’s check out some cool examples together. Oh, and don’t be shy. If you haven’t heard these words, you can look up their definitions in the Oxford English Dictionary—which has a monthly and an annual list of “new words” as well as blog posts dedicated to new word entries.
Popular street language
Twerk
Cyberbully
Retweet
Selfie
Googler
Fashion:
Maxxionista (TJ Maxx’s spin on fashionista)
Chandelier earrings
Double denim
Pixie cut
Jeggings
Fauxhawk
Nerd-Dr. Seuss
Tween-J.R.R. Tolkien
Alligator-William Shakespeare
Chortle-Lewis Carroll
Yahoo-Jonathan Swift
Serendipity-Horace Walpole
Utopia-Sir Thomas More
Gargantuan-Francois Rabelais
Buzzwords that helped techie’s to gain notoriety:
SoLoMo
Web 2.0
Inbound Marketing
Oxford Dictionaries Online says:
Angus Stevenson of Oxford Dictionaries Online said: “New words, senses, and phrases are added to Oxford Dictionaries Online when we have gathered enough independent evidence from a range of sources to be confident that they have widespread currency in English. Publishing online allows us to make the results of our research available more quickly than ever before. Each month, we add about 150 million words to our corpus database of English usage examples collected from sources around the world. We use this database to track and verify new and emerging words and senses on a daily basis. On average, we add approximately 1,000 new entries to Oxford Dictionaries Online every year, and this quarter’s update highlights some fascinating developments in the English language. Portmanteau words, or blends of words, such as phablet and jorts, remain popular, as do abbreviations, seen in new entries such as srsly and apols.”
So, hey, maybe if we can get enough folks to start referring to the term ‘mentoree’ we can get it added to the Oxford Dictionaries’ new word entry list!
Light-Hearted Example:
Key Take-Away:
How About You?