Ginormous. Crunk. Gots. Ain’t. Funner. Fo’shizzle. Are these words or just the new slang in common day America? Many times we are told that they’re not real words and that they shouldn’t be used, but why not? Why are these words not correct in American-English but words like coup, banzai, flak, and ad-hoc are? Such words sound so clearly foreign and are acceptable while our “homegrown” words are not. Our country has new words that are creative and unique to us yet we mark them as being uneducated. This could be one of our chances to be different.

What exactly makes a word a word anyway? A word is “a speech sound or combination of sounds which has come to signify and communicate a particular idea or thought, and which functions as the smallest meaningful unit of a language when used in isolation.” To me, that paraphrases as a spoken sound that communicates an idea or thought. If that is true, then ginormous, crunk, gots, ain’t, funner, and fo’shizzle are all words and so are most any other sounds you make that help communicate a meaning without you having to explain it. Granted, these words are not standard English and they might not be the best thing to say when talking to a debutante or your English teacher.

The real problem isn’t when to use the words though. Not many can argue that fo’shizzle and y’all aren’t American cultured words that have evolved from slang language that has become common. Most teenage and young adult vernacular is almost on the opposite end of the spectrum compared to older generations. Merriam-Webster Dictionary is currently on their eleventh edition because more and more words keep being added since they become more common among people.

It has been said that Shakespeare invented over 1,700 words including critical, excitement, and obscene, which are now viable words. Instead of denouncing the new words that become popular we should enrich our language, like we steadily are already, and perhaps people won’t receive such odd looks from someone the next time they say an awkward sounding word.