In the past 6 weeks, no one has gotten more attention than Denver Broncos quarterback, Tim Tebow. Turning around a thought to be hopeless football season, Tebow, as the new starting quarterback, has won 6 games in a row. Tebow has almost single-handedly reversed the Bronco's previous 2-5 record to a playoff contending 8-5 record. He has gotten so much attention that he has now officially left an imprint on the English language itself."Tebowing"- the act of 'taking a knee' in prayerful reflection in the midst of an athletic activity. According to the Global Language Monitor, this was accepted as an English language word a few days ago. The word was first popularly used in the dramatic overtime victory of the Denver Broncos over the Miami Dolphins on October 23, 2011. During the victory celebration, Tim Tebow ‘took a knee’ and was photographed in a moment of prayerful reflection.
So how exactly does one get a word added to the English language? I always thought it was almost impossible to get a "made-up" word just added to the language like that; I always thought storylines of that sort belonged in the fictional world of my childhood favorite, Frindle. Contrary to popular belief, there is no official agency for accepting new words into the English language. Instead, the Global Language Monitor accepts new words once they meet the criteria of a minimum number of citations across the breadth of the English-speaking world, based on the depth of usage on the Internet, in social media and in the top 75,000 global print and electronic media.
This begs another question, is this an accurate/proper way of adding words into the English language? Some disagree.
Graeme Diamond, principal editor of the New Words group at the Oxford English Dictionary, once said:
"People would be wrong if they thought of us typically reading something in the paper one day and sticking it into the dictionary the next. We want to resist putting ephemera in, because the OED never takes anything out."
This raises an important distinction to be made. Acceptance by the Global Language Monitor is not equivalent to gaining acceptance to Webster's Dictionary for example. Just because the word's usage has been spreading all over the nation in the last 5 or so weeks, just because it's all over the Internet and Tumblr, just because it is approved by the Global Language Monitor, does not make it a word. Actual professional lexicographers have nothing to gain by putting "Tebowing" in a dictionary. There are many points of criticism for thinking to do so. "Tebowing" would be treated as a slang word. And there's been very little formal research on slang, there's no agreement on when slang becomes word.
Others criticize the written source itself, the Global Language Monitor. They say the Global Language Monitor does nothing but find ways to put the latest bait headlines in a press release. The release draws enormous attention because people are eager to consume the cult of Tebow, and they don't really understand how language works. It's interesting to note that these "cults" are most often formed in relationship to athletics. Sports have become important generators of new cultural trends that extend beyond the athletic arena (i.e. "Do the John Wall." "Teach Me How to Bucky.").
"Tebowing" provides an excellent example in how rhetorical phenomena can emerge and the powerful impact it can have on language and society. So what's your view? Should "Tebowing" be adopted as an official English word in the dictionary? Remember to vote above!
