Except that it doesn't feel like making up new words; it feels like "uncovering" words based on the rules of how English words are put together. Or in this case, trying to figure out exactly what those rules are that I've been following for so long without having stated them.
(It's like the first time I needed the word "heterogenous": I thought the concept, I assembled the word, I uttered the word, and the person I was talking to told me it wasn't a real word. I said I'd never heard it before, but it had to be a real word, a proper English word, whether it was in the dictionary or not, because I'd followed the rules when assembling it and its meaning was reasonably clear to any native-speaker familiar with the word "homogenous". Then I pulled out a dictionary and we discovered that it was in fact in there. Did I "invent/re-invent" a word when I did that, or merely "discover" an existing word by following the rules on the fly?)
But yeah, one of the things I love about English is its incredibly rich and nuanced vocabulary. Yaay words! Including making up new ones when we do need to make 'em up.
(no subject)
(It's like the first time I needed the word "heterogenous": I thought the concept, I assembled the word, I uttered the word, and the person I was talking to told me it wasn't a real word. I said I'd never heard it before, but it had to be a real word, a proper English word, whether it was in the dictionary or not, because I'd followed the rules when assembling it and its meaning was reasonably clear to any native-speaker familiar with the word "homogenous". Then I pulled out a dictionary and we discovered that it was in fact in there. Did I "invent/re-invent" a word when I did that, or merely "discover" an existing word by following the rules on the fly?)
But yeah, one of the things I love about English is its incredibly rich and nuanced vocabulary. Yaay words! Including making up new ones when we do need to make 'em up.