The Power of Ingemination: How New Words Are Created

Ingemination is a term used in linguistics to describe the process of creating new words by combining existing words or parts of words. This can involve combining two or more words, or adding affixes such as prefixes or suffixes to existing words. Ingemination is a common way for languages to evolve and adapt to changing social and cultural contexts.

For example, the word "smog" is an ingemination of the words "smoke" and "fog," while the word "selfie" is an ingemination of the words "self" and "picture." Other examples of ingemination include "brunch" (breakfast + lunch), "infotainment" (information + entertainment), and "motel" (motor + hotel).

Ingemination can also be used to create new meanings or connotations for existing words. For example, the word "gay" originally meant "happy" or "carefree," but has been ingeminated with the word "homosexual" to create a new meaning that is specific to the LGBTQ+ community.

Overall, ingemination is an important process in language evolution and can help to create new words and meanings that reflect changing social and cultural contexts.