Concept

Neologism

Overview

In linguistics, a neologism (, ; also known as a coinage) is any newly formed word, term, or phrase that has gained popular or institutional recognition and is becoming accepted into mainstream language.

Neologisms are one facet of lexical innovation, i.e., the linguistic process of new terms and meanings entering a language's lexicon. The most precise studies into language change and word formation, in fact, identify the process of a "neological continuum": a nonce word is any single-use term that may or may not grow in popularity; a protologism is such a term used exclusively within a small group; a prelogism is such a term that is gaining usage but is still not mainstream; and a neologism has become accepted or recognized by social institutions.

Neologisms are often driven by changes in culture and technology. Popular examples of neologisms can arise and be found in nearly all aspects of human life and culture, from science to technology, to the arts, to religion, to fiction (notably science fiction), to films, to television, to commercial branding, to literature, to jargon, to cant, to linguistics and to popular culture.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

In the original texts

Passages from public-domain books where Neologism is discussed.

Thus, having adopted the adjective fraternal, it is a root which should legitimate fraternity, fraternation, fraternization, fraternism, to fratenate, fraternize, fraternally. And give the word neologism to our language, as a root, and it should give us its fellow substantives, neology, neologist, neologization; its adjectives, neologous, neological, neologistical; its verb, neologize; and adverb neologically…
Thomas Jefferson, Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 4
states what it is; names the idea
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This process of composition is sometimes found in its incipient stage—a stage in which the component words are temporarily united to signify some unnamed object, and do not (from lack of frequent use) permanently cohere. But in the majority of inferior languages, the process of “agglutination,” as it is called, has gone far enough to produce considerable stability in the compound words: there is a manifest…
Herbert Spencer, First Principles
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This word, therefore, expressing so very abstract and metaphysical an idea, would not easily or readily occur to the first formers of language. What are called the personal pronouns, it may be observed, are among the last words of which children learn to make use. A child, speaking of itself, says, _Billy walks_, _Billy sits_, instead of _I walk_, _I sit_.
Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments
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So long as Art is confined to Imitation, no special language is required; imitation is itself the substitute for language. But as soon as the representation has become idealized by heightening some features and suppressing or altering others, it corresponds to something which exists only in the mind of the composer; and its communication to the world requires additional labour devoted exclusively to Expression. In…
Auguste Comte, A General View of Positivism Or, Summary exposition of the System of Thought and Life
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Finally where one finds incomprehensible neologisms one may think of combinations made up of components having a sexual significance. Children also in the dream often signify the genitals, as men and women are in the habit of fondly referring to their genital organ as their “little one.” As a very recent symbol of the male genital may be mentioned…
Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams
opens on it; names the idea
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Neologism

Overview

In the original texts

Philosophers who discussed Neologism

Related ideas

Opposing perspectives

Place in the tradition