"New words have been appearing in our language regularly for over a thousand years, but most of them vanish in short order. Especially doomed to obscurity are deliberate coinages, the words people invent to address a perceived need or to make a witty addition to our lexicon. But why? Why do so many new words fail, while others become household names for many generations? Word authority Allan Metcalf examines the phenomenon of new word creation and survival in this inventive and entertaining new book.

Metcalf has studied new words for decades and has contrived a scale for predicting the success of new words, one that is based on an analysis of patterns of successful and unsuccessful innovation of English. He even dares to predict our future words, and he invites the reader to try to spin syllabic straw into linguistic gold by applying his guidelines for success."--BOOK JACKET.