Ridiculous History — "What Makes a Word a 'Word'?"

Podcast: Ridiculous History (iHeartPodcasts)
Hosts: Ben Bowlin & Noel Brown
Date: January 15, 2026

Overview:

In this lively, meta episode, Ben and Noel get gloriously lost in the question: What makes a word “a word”? They joyfully trace the history, mechanics, and quirks of language invention and official adoption, from human tribes naming the sky to the Oxford English Dictionary’s (OED) rigorous vetting criteria. Along the way, they wax philosophical about language as a technology, the chaos of slang, and the surprising difficulty of coining truly new words.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Language as a Technology & Human Tool

• Language as “ancient technology”: The hosts reflect on language’s persistent evolution, noting “language is one of humanity's oldest technologies... and it is still very much a work in progress.” (Ben, 01:29)
• The idea of language as a medium for transmitting ideas blows Noel’s mind anew each time, challenging listeners to see communication as innovation, not a banal default.

The Mythical "True Language" and Lingua Franca

• Ben recounts historical attempts to identify a universal language, referencing experiments where children were isolated in the hope they'd speak "the true language of God." (02:15)
• Esperanto comes up as a running joke between the hosts. (“I love the idea of Esperanto being the true language of God.” - Noel, 02:51)

All Words Are Made Up (& The Power of Shared Vibes)

• “All words at some point were made up...” (Ben, 07:10) — The show demystifies language by highlighting its arbitrary, communal origins.
• The meaning-making process: Words often begin as “vibes-based” (Noel, 07:35), or chosen for sound association (onomatopoeia).
• Many terms, especially slang, cross borders and get remixed — language is a “game of telephone that involves the entire world.” (Noel, 06:23)

How Does a Word Become “Real”?

• The episode’s guiding question: “How does a word officially become a ‘real word’, like the kind you see in a dictionary?” (Ben, 08:02)
• The line between sense and nonsense: The hosts playfully attempt to create new words on the spot—revealing through much laughter how tough this really is.
  • "Can we also acknowledge that's a pretty difficult thing to do?" (Noel, 17:03)

Memorable Word Inventions:

• “Flargle” (Max, 17:28), only to discover it's already on the internet!
• “Quinauntive” (Ben, 18:25) — their first successful nonsense word.

Dictionaries: The Gatekeepers

- The Editorial Process

• Merriam-Webster’s Definition of a Word:
  • “A speech sound or series of speech sounds that symbolize and communicate a meaning, usually without being divisible into smaller units capable of independent use.” (Noel, quoting MW, 11:41)
  • The hosts joke about the noodle-baking complexity of such definitions (12:05).
• Dictionaries like Oxford and Merriam-Webster have “house rules” but converge on similar standards: printed citations, sustained usage, and prevalence.
  • Oxford’s famed “Triple Five” Rule: a word must appear in print five times, in five sources, over five years to be considered (Ben, 35:03).
  • Today, with social media, that five-year standard can be met in “one weird day on Twitter or TikTok.” (Ben, 35:41)
• Lexicographer Sleuthing: Teams at the OED and other dictionaries scan everything from novels to TV transcripts, looking for new words and verifying their use and staying power (Ben, 32:07).

- The Evolutionary Nature of the Dictionary

• Dictionaries aren't prescriptive; they're “trying to figure out that old technology of communication” (Ben, 48:13).
• Words are not only added, but removed—Ben and Noel discuss retired words like "Hodad" (beachgoer who never surfs) and "stylopodium" (a botanical term for a part of a parsley flower).
  • "No wonder it got nixed. Yeah, no one was referring to that part. It's just too specific." (Noel, 46:18)
• Linguistic drift means dictionaries must always evolve: “English is a living language, right? Communication is key, not fancy spelling.” (Ben, 48:13)

Slang, Borrowings, and Culture

• Noel brings up Toronto's vibrant, multicultural teen slang—terms like “cheesed,” “mandam,” “nyzit,” and “walahi”—to illustrate how languages absorb and adapt newcomers (09:12).
• The difficulty of translation and the “marriage between accuracy and poetry”: “A good translator... has to find something at least adjacent in the other language.” (Ben, 15:51)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “On a long enough timeline, everything's gobbledygook.” – Noel (06:23)
• “All words at some point were made up.” – Ben (07:10)
• “Is it vibes based, Ben?” – Noel (07:35)
• “If you want your word canonical, buckaroos, we gotta get it in print.” – Ben (30:12)
• [On coinage:] “Can we at least acknowledge that it’s not easy?” – Noel (18:47)

Host Banter Highlights

• A running joke about "Flargle": Is it new or not? Turns out it exists in Urban Dictionary, pop culture, and as merch.
  • “‘Flargle’s whatever you need it to be.’” – Max (26:01)
• Delightful detour into cravats vs. ascots, resolved by Max’s research: “A cravat is... an umbrella term that includes things like bow ties, ascots, and actual ties.” (Max, 32:46)
• Bringing back delightful “banished” words like Hodad, and fun with the word “unguent” (Noel, 53:03).

The "Words of the Year": What They Reveal

The hosts run through "word of the year" picks over the last several years across major dictionaries (Dictionary.com, Merriam-Webster, Collins, Oxford, Cambridge), with much laughter at the sometimes odd choices:

• 2020: “Pandemic,” “lockdown,” “quarantine.”
• 2021: “Allyship,” “vaccine,” “NFT,” “vax,” “perseverance.”
• 2022: “Woman,” “gaslighting,” “goblin mode,” “permacrisis.”
• 2023: “Hallucinate,” “authentic,” “AI,” “riz” (charisma), “hallucinate” again.
• 2024: “Demure,” “polarization,” “brat,” “brainrot,” “manifest.”
• 2025: “Six-seven” (just the numbers), “slop,” “vibe coding,” “parasocial,” “perseverance” (again from Cambridge).

Insight:
Words of the Year are both reflections of collective consciousness and PR tools for dictionaries. “It's a little bit of a PR move... like, we're the ones that are defining the zeitgeist this time.” (Noel, 37:44) Just as importantly, trending language provides a kind of “tree ring” history of society. (“It's kind of like dendochronology... the study of tree rings.” – Ben, 39:01)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:39–03:08: Warm-up banter, wordplay, and the idea of language as technology.
• 06:01–08:53: Why words are invented and how they move from “gobbledygook” to real language.
• 11:41–13:26: What is a word? The nitty-gritty of definitions and phonemes.
• 17:03–18:42: Playing the “invent a word” game – and running into Flargle.
• 29:35–34:25: Dictionary criteria for new words, the “Triple Five” rule.
• 37:44–39:01: “Words of the Year” — origins, purpose, and cultural reflection.
• 45:26–48:20: Lost and removed words, English as a living language.
• 48:35–55:55: More “words of the year,” most/least loved English words, and why some words grate.

Tone and Style

Ben and Noel keep things playful, delighting in digressions, oddball words, and linguistic trivia. Their tone is warm, openly nerdy, and self-deprecating (“It also makes Noel, Max, and yours truly Supes fun at parties.” – Ben, 13:56).

Summary Takeaways

• Inventing a word is surprisingly hard—and even harder to get it officially recognized.
• Language is constantly in flux, shaped by community, culture, technology, and time.
• Dictionaries are not fixed authorities, but chroniclers of an evolving conversation.
• Every new word, from “flargle” to “parasocial,” offers a snapshot of the society that uses it.
• The boundaries between nonsense, slang, and canonical words are both arbitrary and delightful.
• There’s tremendous power in who controls which words live on—and what gets left out.

Choice Sign-Off

• "Thank you for sailing the high linguistic seas with us." – Ben (56:17)
• “Good luck getting into the dictionary!” — Ben (54:00)
• “Can you guess the most common word in the English language? ... It’s ‘the.’” (54:06–54:14)

Recommended for: Language nerds, history buffs, etymology enthusiasts, writers, and anyone who’s ever wondered where words come from—or tried to make one up.

For further listening, check out Stuff You Should Know’s Esperanto episode, or the podcast Pluribus for a deep dive into hive-mind sci-fi.