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The English language has been known to coin some of the greatest words known to mankind over the last two decades.Homer Simpson’s “D’oh!,” Will Smith’s “jiggy,” and the Internet’s “blogosphere” have all found their way into the English lexicon.

But according to The Global Language Monitor, the English language will cross the one million-word mark on the morning of June 10. (A word becomes official when media outlets, social networks and other sources use it 25,000 times.)

While words like “chiconomics,” “defriend” and “defollow” are currently in a bidding war to claim the top honor, one word that defines an entire generation of gamers is looking to sneak up and claim its place as the official one millionth word: “noob.”

“Noob,” a term created during World War II to describe new soldiers, is now a slang term that is widely used in the online gaming community to describe a newcomer.

Many have questioned the validity of the word and have thought of what making “noob” an official word might say about our culture and the English language.

“It’s diminishing,” said Maria Rosales, a 19-year-old art illustration major.

“I feel like [English is] a dying language. I feel like the origins of English are dying.”

Others feel that the language is adapting the speech created by today’s youth.

“It’s becoming a youth-oriented society, the culture is gonna change because of it,” said Sunshine Zeider, a 21-year-old sociology major whose parents have also been heard using the word. “It’s evolution.”

While the coining of the word “noob” might be a win for an entire generation of gamers, it might also prove to be costly for the gaming community.

“[The gaming community] gains something if that word that they made up becomes institutionalized, but do they lose something because that word becomes everybody’s word now?” said English professor Brian Kennedy, who had no previous knowledge of the term, and believes some terminology is special to certain cultures.

“What defines someone as a part of that community if the language isn’t special? I think in a way you kind of cost yourself there,” said Kennedy.

Kennedy also believes that he would not have a problem seeing the word in a term paper, but also expresses the fact that in term papers, students do not write how they usually speak.

“The kind of style you use in an email to your friend should not be the style you use in a business email,” said Kennedy.

Gamers like Zeider and 19-year-old Kenny Palanca disagree that it would be a loss for the gaming community. In fact, they welcome the idea of having it be an official word as it is already a part of their lexicon.

“It’s been around longer (than “defriend” and “defollow”) and it’s very widely used,” said Palanca. “We helped make that term a term.”

Zeider also expressed his concern over not making it an official word as there have been stranger idioms that have been acknowledged by the government.

“I think if you can order a court reporter to translate Klingon, you can definitely add [‘noob’] to the dictionary,” said Zeider.

Whether or not “noob” will become the one-millionth word in the English language, the coinage of the term would certainly add one extra game life to the PlayStation generation.

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