What's in a word

I mentioned copyright recently in the context of using someone else's words. But can one copyright a single word or two?

Not wanting to take things to extremes, but also respecting whatever privacy may be reasonably expected, I've chosen to pluck individual words from the various Peace Pin Project comments without attribution.

And so these bits of Ulrike (Nemo Ignorat) dyed cloth gifted by Mo, carry individual words of peace ...

and will eventually be seen asemically anyway (ha, the autocorrect is having fits) ...

although some are more scrutable than others (I'm having fun with words today).