Hi, we're here from curiosity.com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes.

I'm Cody Gough.

And I'm Ashley Hamer.

Today you learn about why sometimes you invent new words without realizing it,

how animals mourn their dead, and how you can get better sleep by walking more.

Let's satisfy some curiosity.

There are a lot of ways new words come into the English language.

You can put two words together to make a compound like photo bomb or humble brag.

You can add endings to existing words like hotness. You can shorten longer words like

Bro. But today we wanted to talk about one way you sometimes invent new

words without even realizing it and it's actually one of the most common ways for a

new word to come into English and it says a lot about our tendency to expand on the patterns that structure

vocabulary.

This process is called back formation, and it basically happens when you assume a word must already

exist.

So think about it.

If you can compensate and speculate,

then why can't you conversate?

If a baker bakes and an actor acts, then what does a burglar do?

Well, you might say he burgles, but that's actually not really accepted as standard English,

at least not here in the US.

It's a different story across the pond in the UK.

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