I have coined a few specialty words and phrases in my career. And this practice is not unusual for innovators in various fields. In fact, Samuel Johnson was criticized by some of the guilds of his time for overlooking many of their new words after he published his famous English dictionary. There was no practical way in Johnson’s time for him to be knowledgeable of all the cutting-edge progression(s) being made in the many technologies of his milieu.
Johnson’s inability to be completely current with the progression of his day’s language was nothing compared to the present. Then, as well as now: By the time a dictionary updates, it is already somewhat archaic. Completely catching up is nigh impossible.
As a general rule, new words are generated bottom-up. We all know this if only we consider the process for a brief moment. As an analogy, consider a simmering vessel of a chemical solution in a laboratory. With heat, a gas effervesces from the solution. And by observing this reaction, the chemist forms an idea. And from the idea, he creates a word to represent the idea. Eventually, with usage among other chemists, the word becomes lexiconic.
But if the writers of a dictionary invent words, we encounter an unnatural process. It is top-down. To me, this seems like it could also rate as a kind of ethical breach. For the writers of a dictionary to impose their ideas (words) into a collection of what they have supposedly gathered betrays the ostensible representation of a people’s language. This can also be a device to drive political agendas.
Nevertheless, consider a middleman of sorts: A government that introduces new words or new meanings of existing words. This must occur. But how can it occur without abuse and occasionally nefarious intent? This was what Orwell described in 1984. And Orwell developed this theme from watching Edward Bernays and Joseph Goebbels in action.
I suppose that there are no readers that are new to the concept of top-down linguistics although the phraseology is refreshingly revealing and new (at least to me). I first encountered it in the following piece. Perhaps you will enjoy it as much as I did:
I never miss an opportunity to raise doubts about the climate change religion.
Mel