‘He says it’s just words to make his mind work properly,’ said Treatle, and shrugged. ‘I can’t understand half of what he says and that’s a fact. He says he’s having to invent words because there aren’t any for the things he’s doing.’

Terry Pratchett - Equal Rites

For a long time I’ve resisted inventing new words. In most cases I’ve always considered them more a marketing gimmick rather than anything useful.

I’ve changed my mind.

New words actually help one to think properly and faster.

In fact words are more useful for thinking than for communication, because we always know what we mean when we say something. Other people get picky about ‘definitions’!

Within our own heads definitions are what we want them to be. It’s also easy to create a new word without worry about everyone else knowing what it means.

You can see this in most academic writing. Academic types tend to stay within their own heads, rather than try to explain things to other people. Since the jargon and obscure vocabulary works so well in their own brains, they assume it will work well outside of their heads. The result is that we don’t know what they are talking about half the time.

Clever people need to translate their ideas into ordinary language more than other people.

But why use obscure words at all? And why make up new words? Don’t simple existing words do a better job? Why not call a shovel a big spade?

Well the above example is quite obvious. Using more obscure words often means you can be more accurate in your thoughts. Or rather, you can be really accurate in less time.

It’s quicker to say ’shovel’ than ‘a hand implement consisting of a broad scoop or a more or less hollowed out blade with a handle used to lift and throw material’ (Webster)

Words are useful because they are under our control. We can make them mean what we want them to mean. They are like boxes, and inside those boxes we can put whatever meaning we like. We can even put multiple meanings in there. We can even put an entire life in there (for example: the word ‘Einstein’). And entire concepts and theories such as ‘postmodernism’.

Abstract concepts such as ‘postmodern’ are particularly interesting because they are almost impossible to think of in normal sensory detail (sounds, pictures, feelings). I can picture a film like Blade Runner, but it would hardly convey the full meaning of postmodernism.

Only the word ‘postmodernism’ does.

So basically words work like a hub to which ideas are linked. Think of the word, and a miriad of meaning comes instantly and automatically to mind.

Sometimes a word can paint a thousand pictures.

It does not have to be a word. It could be a feeling or a different kind of symbol. But words are probably the most effective.

So if you come up with an idea, especially a complicated one, give that idea a name. It will help you think.