“What people are really asking when they’re asking if a word is real, they’re really asking, “Well, how many brains will this give me access to?” Because I think that’s a lot of how we look at language. A word is essentially a key that gets us into certain people’s heads. And if it gets us into one brain, it’s not really worth it, not really worth knowing. Two brains, eh, it depends on who it is. A million brains, OK, now we’re talking. And so a real word is one that gets you access to as many brains as you can. That’s what makes it worth knowing.
Incidentally, the realest word of all by this measure is this.
“O.K.”
That’s it. The realest word we have. That is the closest thing we have to a master key. That’s the most commonly understood word in the world, no matter where you are. The problem with that is, no one seems to know what those two letters stand for.
Which is kind of weird, right? ….No one really seems to know, but the fact that it doesn’t matter says something about how we add meaning to words. The meaning is not in the words themselves. We’re the ones that pour ourselves into it.” John Koenig’s TED talk on language to express obscure emotions