Wednesday, October 8, 2008

"Websterizied"?

A curious thing happened in the making of "Webster's words are spaztastic!"
My editor (Sam Daleo, who retires today but won't give me his parking spot), asked me if "Websterizied" was spelled correctly.

I figured that when you make up a word, you can spell it however you want to, but my initial instinct was to spell "Websterized."
Alas, there were some hits on the Web for that, and I wanted to coin a word for fun's sake (and to make a point, hopefully).
But more mischievously, I wanted to see if people say the word was misspelled.

The Merriam-Webster's Open Dictionary entry, which has yet to appear, follows:

Websterizied (adjective): To become a word via Merriam-Webster's Open Dictionary
"The words 'spaz' and 'fantastic' were Websterized to 'spaztastic.'"
Submitted by : Ivan Lajara from New York on Oct. 07, 2008 15:14

Whatever happens, Webster already has this:

* webster
(noun) : A person who is always going into different websites.
"The webster spent all afternoon looking for cheap deals."
Submitted by: J.C. from Pennsylvania on Nov. 29, 2007 13:02
(verb) : To look up the definition of a word in a dictionary
"Everytime I come across a word that I dont know I webster it."
Submitted by: Kris from United Kingdom on Jan. 17, 2007 10:14

Webster-site (noun) : the ultimate online dictionary
"Who knows what 'lexpionage' awaits next on the Webster-site?" —Laura Lewis, The Brunswick Beacon, June 30, 2005
Submitted by: Annie Lew from North Carolina on Jul. 13, 2006 17:15

* websterian (web-STARE-ee-in) (adjective) : Used to describe someone/something that is like or similar to a dictionary. (derived from the word "webster".)
"That dude is websterian! He can tell you the definition of anything!"
Submitted by: Anonymous on Dec. 15, 2006 18:44

* websterling (noun) : words that hope to be in Webster's dictionary someday
"The current crop of websterlings caused heated debate among the editors at Merriam-Webster."
Submitted by: Paul Burns from Washington on Jan. 06, 2006 18:54

* Websterner (noun) : One who uses or seeks references from Webster dictionaries/publications.
"Webster dictionaries/publications have always remained most popular source of knowledge. So, just like a netizen for net user, "Websterner" for Webster user."
Submitted by: Mazhar Qureshi on May. 27, 2007 00:42