Editing Interlingua (section)

=== Eligibility ===

A word, that is a form with meaning, is eligible for the Interlingua vocabulary if it is verified by at least three of the four primary control languages. Either secondary control language can substitute for a primary language. Any word of Indo-European origin found in a control language can contribute to the eligibility of an international word.{{sfn|Stillman|Gode von Aesch|1943}} In some cases, the archaic or ''potential'' presence of a word can contribute to its eligibility.

A word can be potentially present in a language when a [[Morphological derivation|derivative]] is present, but the word itself is not. English ''proximity'', for example, gives support to Interlingua {{lang|ia|proxime}}, meaning 'near, close'. This counts as long as one or more control languages actually have this basic root word, which the Romance languages all do. Potentiality also occurs when a concept is represented as a [[compound (linguistics)|compound]] or derivative in a control language, the [[morpheme]]s that make it up are themselves international, and the combination adequately conveys the meaning of the larger word. An example is Italian {{lang|it|fiammifero}} (lit. 'flamebearer'), meaning 'match, lucifer', which leads to Interlingua {{lang|ia|flammifero}}, or 'match'. This word is thus said to be potentially present in the other languages although they may represent the meaning with a single morpheme.{{sfn|Gode|1971|loc=Introduction}}

Words do not enter the Interlingua vocabulary solely because [[cognate]]s exist in a sufficient number of languages. If [[semantic change|their meanings have become different over time]], they are considered different words for the purpose of Interlingua eligibility. If they still have one or more meanings in common, however, the word can enter Interlingua with this smaller set of meanings.{{sfn|Stillman|Gode von Aesch|1943}}

If this procedure did not produce an international word, the word for a concept was originally taken from Latin (see below). This only occurred with a few [[grammatical particle]]s.