RE: Have you ever felt the need to create a new word?

["Nuckols, Kenneth M" <Kenneth -dot- Nuckols -at- mybrighthouse -dot- com>]

Kathy Bowman asked...

> 
> Have you ever felt the need to create a new word?
> 
> For example, in a military sense a target can be 'engageable', ie it
is
> able to be engaged. This leads to the term 'Engageability' on a
screen,
> meaning that it is (or is not or will be) able to be engaged. The
screen
> could show "Ability to be engaged' or 'Able to be engaged' but there
is
> limited room and we are stuck with 'Engageability'.
> 

While I agree that language evolves, I'm in no hurry to rush the process
along. I have to confess that in fits of limited time and limited
resources I've been tempted to -able -ize -ility, or -ation existing
words to fit the situation, but I always feel like I'm cheating if I do
it.

What I wish for (and I imagine it exists and I'll expose my ignorance
for not knowing about it) is a dictionary where you can look up words
"BY DEFINITION" to see if a term already exists.  When faced with your
situation, my first thought is, "what single word already exists that
means 'the potential to be engageable?'" A thesaurus is suspect at best,
and can never be relied on to provide a proper term without also having
a dictionary at hand. What I'd love to find is a dictionary where I can
look up "the potential to be engaguable" and find out what existing
words there are that could suit. I'd rather use a word that already
exists and conveys a clear meaning to my user than "cheating" and making
something up.

Can anyone recommend a good online (prefereable) or in-print dictionary
where one looks up definitions to find words instead of the other way
around?

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail may contain information that is privileged, confidential or otherwise protected from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail, purge it and do not disseminate or copy it.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

WebWorks ePublisher Pro for Word features support for every major Help
format plus PDF, HTML and more. Flexible, precise, and efficient content
delivery. Try it today!. http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l

Doc-To-Help includes a one-click RoboHelp project converter. It's that easy.  Watch the demo at http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- infoinfocus -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40infoinfocus.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to lisa -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.