What's in a new word?

Quite a lot, says Graeme Diamond, Principal Editor of the New Words Group, who highlights some significant words so new that they haven’t even made the printed page.

When is a word a serious word? That is to say, when is a word more than a just passing fad, a lasting contribution to the rich linguistic heritage of the nation that merits inclusion in the Oxford English Dictionary? The answer is not quite as straightforward as you might think, and each chosen word goes through a complicated, highly selective, and often long-term evaluation process before it reaches the printed page. Dictionary compilers of the 21st century are like 19th century gold panners: they must sift, and sift again to find the true gold.

The OED project gathers thousands of new words and meanings every year, primarily through its Reading Programmes (see http://www.oed.com/about/writing/evidence.html). Readers in a variety of geographical locations read printed material of all sorts, including newspapers, novels, film and television scripts, and pamphlets, and highlight new or unusual uses of words. The results of this process are then keyed into a vast database, which can be analysed by year, subject area, geographical region, and so on, to give us the latest information on the currency and frequency of a particular usage. The Oxford English Dictionary also make use of the vast number of resources provided by the Internet, while more new words and senses are brought to our attention by voluntary contributions from members of the public.

Below is a list of words which may be gaining a higher profile in the coming year or so. Of course, it's impossible to predict which phenomena will take off in the future, and doubly so to predict the words which will be used to describe them. However, the following words have seen a flourishing of usage in 2006, which may point to more widespread currency in years to come.

In a sense, forecasting of this type runs counter to the philosophy of the Oxford English Dictionary, which is to record and describe the usage of a word over a period of time, and provide a historical perspective for the items we include. As such, there is by no means a guarantee that any of the words listed will ever attain a level of currency that merits inclusion in the OED, or that, if they do, the definition will resemble that given below.

amigurumi, n.: a type of cuddly crocheted doll with a large head, originating in Japan and just beginning to gain popularity in the U.S.

black site, n.: a classified military site, the existence of which is officially denied.

carbon-neutral, adj.: designating a process or product which makes no net contribution to the amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere, often by utilising a compensatory tree-planting programme. [A somewhat older item, but representative of an increasingly prominent concern]

emo, n.: a fan of emo music; a member of the subculture associated with this. [As the name of a genre, emo has been around a while, but has only recently begun to be used to refer to a person.]

insourcing, n.: the action or process of obtaining goods or services in-house, esp. by using existing resources or employees. [Again, an older word, but indicative of the continued life of the -sourcing suffix in business contexts; see also the very new crowdsourcing, the contracting out of a business process to a 'community' of people over the Internet]

made-for-mobile, adj.: designating content (usually audio-visual material) specifically designed to be viewed on a mobile phone.

Nutrigenomics, n.: a science which attempts to tailor a person's diet to his or her genetic make-up.

pay by touch, n. and adj.: a system for paying for purchases without cards or cash, based on the biometric scanning of fingerprints. [Currently being trialled in the U.S.]

softphone, n.: a piece of software which enables telephone calls to be made via a computer. [This technology is beginning to become widely available.]

And here are three that made the grade in 2006:

chowhound, n.

bouncebackability, n.

dromaeosaurid, n.