What makes a word a 'word'?
Ridiculous History
iHeartPodcasts
4.2 • 4.7K Ratings
🗓️ 15 January 2026
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Words are everywhere -- and we're grateful, because we can't do this show without them. But all words were, at some point, just made up. So how does society decide what counts as a "real" word? In today's episode, Ben, Noel and Max dive into the history of language, and the oddly specific systems dictionaries put in place to decide whether a given word or phase is legitimate.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Ridiculous History is a production of IHeart Radio. Welcome back to the show. |
| 0:27.9 | Fellow ridiculous historians. |
| 0:29.6 | Thank you, as always, so much for tuning in. |
| 0:33.1 | Let's give a big shout out to our super producer, Mr. Max Williams. |
| 0:37.3 | Ramalema, ding-dong. The Zah.bidi-gook. Hippity hoopla. What is it? Bibbidi-babidi-bang-bang-buggy set up. Never mind. Carry on. Nailed it. No, we can get it into the OED. That's Mr. Noel Brown, none other. |
| 0:55.7 | They called me Ben Bowlin in this neck of the woods. |
| 0:58.6 | And guys, thinking about this, we love words. |
| 1:03.2 | We actually would not have this show without words. |
| 1:06.7 | Kind of key. |
| 1:08.4 | I suppose we could just do it with like wild gesticulations now here in the video |
| 1:12.5 | age, but don't think it would hit the same. And it'd be really hard to consume while it's doing |
| 1:16.6 | your housework. That's right, because you have to watch us. We are still working on the |
| 1:23.4 | interpretive dance episodes of ridiculous history. |
| 1:28.8 | It's always happening in our hearts. |
| 1:30.2 | There it is. |
| 1:33.2 | So, you know, thank you, words. |
| 1:41.0 | It's weird, Noel, because language is one of humanity's oldest technologies ever, and it is still very much a work in progress. |
| 1:43.4 | And we love that. |
| 1:44.6 | You know, |
| 1:45.1 | on this show and on stuff that I want you to know, |
| 1:47.1 | this idea of things you might not think are technology |
| 1:50.4 | as being a form of technology. |
... |
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