Do you make a word then give it meaning, or do you think of a meaning and assign a word to it?

Question

I wonder which is more effective, creating a list of conwords then giving definitions or, creating a list of definitions then assigning conwords?

Answer 1

meaning and then words, because every language is built on the needs of the environment in which is based. List the main words used in that environment according to the geography and culture you are planning, then you can start to separate it into groups and assigns common radicals and all the other word-creation processes.

Answer 2

I have mostly made up conwords when I had a new meaning in mind. Most of the time now I am deriving new words from combinations of existing words. I do occasionally think of a conword that sounds so good that I replace past words or seek out a meaning so that it will become a fairly common usage.

That said, one way or another, I do wind up with conwords I like but don't need yet. I keep a list of them for future use. Importantly for my productivity, I have a counterpart list of English concepts for future use: so that I neither forget them nor randomly divert myself from the task I'm on when I think of them.