Is "dog" a verb or a noun or both? What about medical and scientific terms? Is "saute'" English or French? Slang? Abbreviations? Twitter speak? If you're talking the universe of words written, typed and spoken in English, you quickly reach numbers in the one million range.
A more proper way of counting might be to take a look at one of the iconic dictionaries we use today. Webster's clocks in with close to half a million words, while the Oxford version tallies up nearly 200,000. But each contains words like crepuscular, which means "of or relating to twilight," tmesis, which refers to cutting a word in half and sticking another in the middle, and petrichor, which is "the pleasant smell that accompanies the first rain after a dry spell." If you know someone who can use those in everyday speech, well that's fan-freakin-tastic.
In actual usage, experts estimate that most native speakers have a vocabulary that clocks in around 40,000 words. However, that includes both active and passive words. Passive ones are those that we know but rarely use, while active ones account for the majority of our speech and interactions. If you parse it even further, it's a much smaller universe. According to "The Reading Teachers Book of Lists," the first 100 words are used in 50% of adult and student writing, and the first 1,000 words are used in 89% of everyday writing.
That means that every one of those 1,000 is valuable. You can argue as to how best to string them together to form sentences, but each is an arrow in your quiver when you try to communicate. Take away any of them, and your ability to convey what you want is severely limited. Imagine not being able to use #928 "bought." Or having to work around not being able to write #697 "smile." Maybe you could live without #534 "count" or #352 "best" or #146 "boy." The good news, of course, is that you don't have to avoid them. They are free to use as you see fit (which is #714 for the record).
But what if they weren't? What if you had to fork over a royalty for each time you trotted out "whole" (#148) or "she" (#50) or "you" (#5). Imagine if it you owned the number one word in the English language, and were able to demand payment every time someone uttered it or wrote it. It would seem ridiculous, unless that is, you are Ohio State University. Or as they liked to be called "The Ohio State University." And so they filed a claim to trademark the word "The."
The school was founded in 1870, and was originally called the "Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College" due to its location in a farming community. In 1878, the name was changed to "The Ohio State University." The given reason for including "The" as part of the official name was to give the school stature and show it was a leading institution in the state, and not to be confused with any others – a first among equals.
Fast forward to the days of big money college football, and it's all about marketing. The school filed trademark protection for the most used word in the English language, as well as the names Urban Meyer and Woody Hayes, two of the school's most well know coaches. According to university spokesman Chris Deavey, it was important to "vigorously protect the university's brand and trademarks. These assets hold significant value, which benefits our students and faculty and the broader community by supporting our core academic mission of teaching and research."
However it seems they didn't check with the teaching staff at OSU's own Moritz School of Law. Professors there might have pointed out that in order to trademark a common word it has to be used in a unique fashion, like Apple for computers. Just putting an article in front of a name doesn't do it. And that's why their claim was rejected this week.
So for now at least feel free to use "the" as many times as you wish, knowing you won't have to fork over a nickel every time to the folks in Columbus. But as for Urban Meyer, he might have an issue. He better insist on people calling him "Coach." Otherwise, it's going to cost him.
-END-
Marc Wollin of Bedford uses many words, cost be dammed. His column appears regularly in The Record-Review, The Scarsdale Inquirer and online at http://www.glancingaskance.blogspot.com/, as well as via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
A more proper way of counting might be to take a look at one of the iconic dictionaries we use today. Webster's clocks in with close to half a million words, while the Oxford version tallies up nearly 200,000. But each contains words like crepuscular, which means "of or relating to twilight," tmesis, which refers to cutting a word in half and sticking another in the middle, and petrichor, which is "the pleasant smell that accompanies the first rain after a dry spell." If you know someone who can use those in everyday speech, well that's fan-freakin-tastic.
In actual usage, experts estimate that most native speakers have a vocabulary that clocks in around 40,000 words. However, that includes both active and passive words. Passive ones are those that we know but rarely use, while active ones account for the majority of our speech and interactions. If you parse it even further, it's a much smaller universe. According to "The Reading Teachers Book of Lists," the first 100 words are used in 50% of adult and student writing, and the first 1,000 words are used in 89% of everyday writing.
That means that every one of those 1,000 is valuable. You can argue as to how best to string them together to form sentences, but each is an arrow in your quiver when you try to communicate. Take away any of them, and your ability to convey what you want is severely limited. Imagine not being able to use #928 "bought." Or having to work around not being able to write #697 "smile." Maybe you could live without #534 "count" or #352 "best" or #146 "boy." The good news, of course, is that you don't have to avoid them. They are free to use as you see fit (which is #714 for the record).
But what if they weren't? What if you had to fork over a royalty for each time you trotted out "whole" (#148) or "she" (#50) or "you" (#5). Imagine if it you owned the number one word in the English language, and were able to demand payment every time someone uttered it or wrote it. It would seem ridiculous, unless that is, you are Ohio State University. Or as they liked to be called "The Ohio State University." And so they filed a claim to trademark the word "The."
The school was founded in 1870, and was originally called the "Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College" due to its location in a farming community. In 1878, the name was changed to "The Ohio State University." The given reason for including "The" as part of the official name was to give the school stature and show it was a leading institution in the state, and not to be confused with any others – a first among equals.
Fast forward to the days of big money college football, and it's all about marketing. The school filed trademark protection for the most used word in the English language, as well as the names Urban Meyer and Woody Hayes, two of the school's most well know coaches. According to university spokesman Chris Deavey, it was important to "vigorously protect the university's brand and trademarks. These assets hold significant value, which benefits our students and faculty and the broader community by supporting our core academic mission of teaching and research."
However it seems they didn't check with the teaching staff at OSU's own Moritz School of Law. Professors there might have pointed out that in order to trademark a common word it has to be used in a unique fashion, like Apple for computers. Just putting an article in front of a name doesn't do it. And that's why their claim was rejected this week.
So for now at least feel free to use "the" as many times as you wish, knowing you won't have to fork over a nickel every time to the folks in Columbus. But as for Urban Meyer, he might have an issue. He better insist on people calling him "Coach." Otherwise, it's going to cost him.
-END-
Marc Wollin of Bedford uses many words, cost be dammed. His column appears regularly in The Record-Review, The Scarsdale Inquirer and online at http://www.glancingaskance.blogspot.com/, as well as via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
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