Dictionaries are living documents that are updated with new words each year. Recently, Merriam-Webster added more than 200 terms, from social media slang (“touch grass,” meaning “to participate in normal activities in the real world especially as opposed to online experiences and interactions”) to science jargon (“heat index,” which is “derived from a calculation using air temperature and relative humidity”). But much like how sports halls of fame induct only a select few players, dictionary editors and lexicographers don’t accept every word and slang term that comes across their desk. Their process takes into account several factors, such as the term’s longevity, popularity, and purpose. Here are some basics of how a new word makes it into the dictionary. 

Merriam-Webster, one of the preeminent English language dictionaries, explains: “A word gets into a dictionary when it is used by many people who all agree that it means the same thing.” That is to say, your friend group might use a word in a certain way, but that doesn’t mean it should go straight into the dictionary. It takes time for words to spread across society, and they get added only after developing a widespread, collectively understood meaning.

An early step to potentially adding a new word is compiling trusted citations of it being used in articles, books, songs, and more. Researchers scour every available source, and the Oxford English Dictionary even uses crowdsourcing to bring new terms to their attention. 

Beyond widespread usage, several additional criteria must be met in order for a term to be considered a worthy dictionary entry. A word should be widely understood across many regions, serve a linguistic purpose that enhances communication, and have been used for a sustained period of time. If the word meets all these criteria, it stands a better chance of making the dictionary corpus (the lexicographical term for the body of the reference book). But if a term is known to only a small group of people, or has been popular for just a few weeks, the odds of dictionary enshrinement are much less likely.

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And even if a potential candidate meets all of the criteria, that doesn’t mean it’ll make the cut. It comes down to a final decision that’s made by an editor of a specific dictionary rather than some larger committee of dictionaries. Of course, some metrics are subjective, which is why some words appear in certain dictionaries and not others. However, if a word is approved, it will show up online, be published in future print editions, and is likely to trickle through to other dictionaries. 

Some of the most common words used today actually started as mistakes. The English language is famous for its adaptability, as it borrows words from other languages and turns linguistic accidents into permanent additions. From medieval courtrooms to modern computer science, here are nine fascinating examples of words that became part of our dictionary through memorable misunderstandings.

An algorithm is a set mathematical process with clear steps to arrive at the right answer. But the word “algorithm” is a mistranslation of the name of ninth-century Persian mathematician Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī, which was Latinized into “Algoritmi.” So, a fundamental mathematics term comes from a mispronounced name.

The Old English word fnesan means “to snort.” But as writing and penmanship changed, it caused confusion between the letter “s” and the letter “f.” Fnesan became snesan — the origins of “sneeze.” Gesundheit!

A tornado is a flurry of winds, maybe blowing so loudly that people couldn’t hear the correct word. The etymology of “tornado” is unclear, but it’s close enough to the Spanish words tronada, meaning “thunder,” and tornar, meaning “to turn.” A combination of the two, perhaps due to a conflation of their sounds, created the English word “tornado.”

In the Middle Ages, the language of law was French. This word may have originated from a misinterpretation of a common abbreviation in legal documents, cul.prist. The full phrase was prest d’averrer notre bille, or “we’re ready to prove your indictment.” The abbreviation cul.prist indicated a “guilty” verdict. As English became more common, “culprit” was created by people confusing the verdict for the person.

The word “pea” is a backformation, a word created from an existing word. The original form of the green legume was “pease,” with the plural “pesen.” However, “pease” was mistaken for the plural, and people quickly began calling the singular “pea.” The mistake stuck, and now “peas” is the plural of “pea.”

Like “culprit,” “ammunition” is from French, a dominant Middle Ages language. The word la munition, meaning “weapon,” was misheard by English speakers as “ammunition,” which maintains its firing power today.

Sherry is a strong, sometimes sweet Spanish wine. The name is commonly believed to be a misinterpretation of the Spanish vino de Xeres.

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Chassé is a French ballet term, meaning “to move across the floor, jump, and bring your feet together.” But English ears heard it and wrote down “sashay,” meaning “a sassy, dance-like walk.”

“Varsity” now strictly refers to high school sports, but it comes from “university.” It’s a shortening and misspelling based on an archaic pronunciation.

As today’s communication is dominated by keyboards and touchscreens, the art of penmanship is dying out. For hundreds of years, personal style was expressed through stylish script and signatures. But in recent decades, cursive penmanship has become less prominent, in part because many American grade schools dropped it from the curriculum in the 2010s (though about half the states have added it back in the last few years). Let’s explore the history of cursive writing and script and why mastering penmanship remains relevant in our digital age.

Good penmanship has long been considered a status symbol, indicating wealth, privilege, and education access. The ancient Romans borrowed aspects of the Etruscan alphabet to create an early written script for transactions and correspondence. However, by the Roman Empire’s fall, penmanship had become a specialized discipline rarely seen outside monastic settings. This is evidenced by the beautiful illuminated manuscripts from monasteries before the Renaissance.

To give a very brief overview of the development of European penmanship styles, in the late eighth century, Charlemagne — the King of the Franks and Holy Roman Emperor — instructed an English monk to standardize the craft of penmanship. This resulted in the Carolingian minuscule, a writing style that included lowercase letters, word separation, and punctuation. In the Middle Ages, the increasing costs of parchment led to a denser style of script. However, upon the invention of the printing press in the mid-15th century, a heavier typeface dominated, but Italian humanists responded by creating a more elegant handstyle, known as “italic.” 

Handwriting was a status symbol, leading to the emergence of penmanship schools in the New World by the 1700s, while poorer people taught themselves to write by copying from manuals. In addition to indicating education and wealth, penmanship also signified gender, as men and women were expected to flourish their writing differently. “Feminine” writing often appeared more curved and bowed-out than straighter “masculine” writing.

In the mid-1800s, abolitionist Platt Rogers Spencer attempted to democratize American penmanship by developing a cursive writing system that was adopted by many schools and businesses. His Spencerian script can be seen in the original Coca-Cola logo. This idea of teaching a single penmanship style caught on, and in the 19th and 20th centuries, cursive English was standardized in American schools. As cities grew and job prospects, such as secretarial positions, opened outside of fields and factories, strong writing skills were required. In many ways, good penmanship meant improved opportunities.

Why don’t more people born after the 1990s have strong penmanship skills? The answer is simple — computers. While penmanship is still rigorously taught in many European schools, current American schoolchildren spend more time mastering typing and computer skills than practicing neat handwriting. But traditional handwriting offers unique cognitive benefits that typing simply can’t replicate.

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Today, we may not need to pass a penmanship test to get a job, but it’s still a valuable skill to cultivate outside of school. Research shows that handwriting notes activates multiple brain regions associated with optimal memory, much more so than digital devices. Taking down information by hand or writing a to-do list on paper will preserve that memory longer than typing it into a laptop or phone.