What makes a word, a word?

Why is one group of random letters aligned in a row called a word when another group of random letters in a row not? Is it because someone says so or just because people actually use one set of aligned letters and not the other?

I haven't got the answers, but I like making up words and to me they have real meaning so that means they're words, in my estimation of it anyway.

Many of my words I make up happen by accident or come to me in a flash of brilliance or sometimes echo around in my noggin for a while before coming out into the light of day in the right moment but no matter how the word happens once it's been uttered it enters my vocabulary for ever.

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One of my words is stragedy which is a combination of the two words strategy and tragedy and it was created to describe the situation of well thought out strategy turning into tragedy later on. Fucken brilliant right?

An example of a stragedy

Back a while I played American Football competitively and took it seriously. I had a ten year playing career and loved most of it including the gym training, practice days and game days; I say most because the game caused me injuries, operations and I suffer a little now due to the hammering my body took. It was enjoyable though and the camaraderie I had with my team mates and the ability to pit my skills against others in what was often a titanic struggle are things I recall fondly.

Each off-season I'd work hard in the gym lifting weights, running long distances and short to increase stamina and burst-speed over short distances and working on flexibility and suppleness through calisthenics all based around a set plan - a strategy designed to have me ready to go from the first pre-season training and to have a solid platform from which to leap into a season of great results.

It worked every year and I achieved some very rewarding outcomes on the field but during one particular off-season I did most of my running on the road (instead of grass or an athletics track) and little by little I developed shin splints due to the impacts of each footfall on the hard surface which, for those who have not had the condition, is very painful. It's essentially when the shin bone, tendons and muscles become overworked...and the treatment? Rest, ice and pain killers.

It ruined my pre-season completely.

I'd go to practice with the team and spend a little time training and the rest icing up and popping pain killers which continued through the week and into game day; they were strong pain killers and...well folks, that's not a good thing.

After a few games I, in conjunction with the team doctors and my own, decided I'd need to stop playing for a while, get off the pain killers because I was eating too many, and spend some time rectifying the issue properly - time is the healer and it took a long time!

I thought a month (four games) would be about the time I'd need but it was eight and that meant I missed most of the regular season games and only came back a couple games before the playoffs.

I'd maintained my strength and fitness in ways that didn't stress the shin splint issue further, was on the sidelines at each game and kept my finger on the pulse but my match fitness was poor and besides, I felt like an outsider coming into the team right at the end of the regular season and playoffs after the rest of the team had done all the work.

I ended up finishing out the season, (we lost to a better team in a brutal (but fun) final game and ended up the season in second place), not too bad I guess but I hadn't played to my standards and was pretty fucken depressed.

It was a stragedy - a strategy that ended in tragedy.

I got over it and had several great seasons from there but will always look back on that year, the off-season, self-inflicted injuries, the recovery and the season itself with great disappointment. I learned a good lesson though, and made up a fucken good word!

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Do you ever make up your own words or have you heard any good made up ones? Feel free to share them below in the comments if you'd like.