Who creates the words you write?

Last night I said, without thinking, something that I've been reading around on the blogosphere for a while now in response to something my brother said (he said he wanted to hit me over the back of the head for that one). What was this mischievous word? "Awesomesauce". A word that I first learnt from reading the fantastic Elana Johnson's blog, but have seen it around on so many blogs ever since.

What does it mean? Well, doing a random Google search (you gotta love Google, everything under the tips of your finger) I came upon the definition in Urban Dictionary:

Something or someone truly amazing. Usually: more awesome than the word "awesome" can describe.

This made me think where do the words come from (and do the people who create them actually get any credit)? You've got to admit it, someone had to be behind creating slang terms and catch phrases. There's IM, 1337 (pronounced as Leet) and even Vulcan (I have to hand it to the fans for creating an entire language out of snippets from a tv show).

These words and new languages have been used in many stories, and sometimes they even change meaning due to the person and generation they're speaking to. Hey, when LOL became popular it took me a while to figure that it stood for "Laugh Out Loud". Now I hear you laughing, but I could've sworn that it meant "Lots of Love" which was it's previous meaning.

When you write do you use any catchphrases or slang to show the characters age and relate to the readers of the now? Do you stay away from such trends so that there will be no communication breakdown? Or, do you just not think about the words/slang you write and just write?