system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How can words people use all the time "not be words." Who decides when something is a word?

I was talking to my dad and I said "I must be misremembering." He said "That's a word invented by Roger Clemens. It doesn't exist."

But it does exist. I just said it and he understood the meaning of the word. Same with a word like conversate, apparently it's a combination of conversation and converse but conversate is not a word. Yet, if I were to use it in a sentence everyone would follow.

WHAT'S THE DEAL?
gpt
when enough people think it is a word, it is a word. The fact people understand it without explanation just helps it along to becoming a word. You have to realize, no word ever existed until people started using it.