Neologism

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A neologism (/niːˈɒlədʒɪzəm/; from Greek νέο- (néo-), meaning "new", and λόγος (lógos), meaning "speech, utterance") is the name for a newly coined term, word, or phrase, that may be in the process of entering common use, but has not yet been accepted into mainstream language.[1][2] Neologisms are often directly attributable to a specific person, publication, period, or event. Νεολεξία (Greek: a "new word", or the act of creating a new word) is a synonym for it. The term neologism is first attested in English in 1772, borrowed from French néologisme (1734).[3]

A neologism may also be a new usage of an existing word,[4][5] sometimes called a semantic extension.[6][7] This distinct from a person's idiolect: their unique patterns of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation.

In psychiatry, the term neologism is used to describe the use of words that have meaning only to the person who uses them, independent of their common meaning.[8] This tendency is considered normal in children, but in adults can be a symptom of psychopathy[9] or a thought disorder (indicative of a psychotic mental illness, such as schizophrenia).[10] People with autism also may create neologisms.[11] Additionally, use of neologisms may be related to aphasia acquired after brain damage resulting from a stroke or head injury.[12]

In theology, a neologism is a relatively new doctrine (for example, Transcendentalism). In this sense, a neologist is one who proposes either a new doctrine or a new interpretation of source material such as religious texts.[13]

From literature

Neologisms may come from popular literature in different forms. Sometimes, they are simply taken from a word used in the narrative of a book; a few representative examples are: "grok" (to achieve complete intuitive understanding), from Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein; "McJob," from Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture by Douglas Coupland; "cyberspace," from Neuromancer by William Gibson; "nymphet" from Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov.

Other times the title of a book becomes the neologism, for instance, Catch-22 (from the title of Joseph Heller's novel). Alternatively, the author's name may become the neologism, although the term is sometimes based on only one work of that author. This includes such words as "Orwellian" (from George Orwell, referring to his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four), "Kafkaesque" (from Franz Kafka, author and philosopher most renowned for The Metamorphosis) and "Ballardesque" or "Ballardian" (from J.G. Ballard, author of Crash). The word "sadistic" is derived from the cruel sexual practices Marquis de Sade described in his novels. Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle was the container of the Bokononism family of nonce words.

Another category is words derived from famous characters in literature, such as quixotic (referring to the titular character in Don Quixote de la Mancha by Cervantes), a scrooge (from the main character in Dickens's A Christmas Carol), or a pollyanna (from Eleanor H. Porter's book of the same name). James Joyce's Finnegans Wake, composed in a uniquely complex linguistic style, coined the words monomyth and quark.

List of neologisms

Science and technology

Science fiction

Politics

Design

Popular culture

These may be considered a variety of slang.

  • moin (early 20th century)
  • prequel (1958)
  • jumping the shark (late 1970s)
  • posterized (c. 1980s) ("posterize" also has existed for some time as a term for an image-editing technique; its neologistic sports usage is completely unrelated)
  • queercore (mid-1980s)
  • plus-size (1990s)
  • blog (late 1990s)
  • chav (early 2000s)
  • webinar (early 2000s)
  • wardrobe malfunction (2004)
  • truthiness (2005) (already existed as an obscure word previously recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary, but its 2005 usage on the Colbert Report was a neologistic one, with a new definition)
  • fauxhawk (early 2000s)
  • Brangelina (2005) – used to refer to supercouple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie
  • Tebowing (2011) – description of a prayerful victory stance derived from NFL quarterback Tim Tebow
  • d'oh and cromulent, many culturally significant phrases from The Simpsons (1989–) are in common use
  • selfie (2013) - used to refer a self-portrait
  • Indie (late 1990s)[citation needed]

Commerce and advertising

See also: List of generic and genericized trademarks

These neologisms are genericised trademarks.

Linguistics

Other

  • Thanksgivukkah, a portmanteau neologism given to the convergence of the American holiday of Thanksgiving and the first day of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah on Thursday, November 28, 2013.[14][15]
  • nonce words, words coined and used only for a particular occasion, usually for a special literary effect.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Malmkjaer, Kirsten. (Ed.) (2006) The Linguistics Encyclopedia. eBook edition. London & New York: Routledge, p. 601. ISBN 0-203-43286-X
  2. ↑ Levchenko (2010). Neologism in the Lexical System of Modern English: On the Mass Media Material. Hammer, Patrick, Tanja Hammer, Matthias Knoop, Julius Mittenzwei, Georg Steinbach u. Michael Teltscher. GRIN Verlag GbR. p. 11. ISBN 3640637313. 
  3. ↑ Oxford English Dictionary, draft revision Dec. 2009, s.v.
  4. ↑ Sally Barr Ebest Writing from A to Z: the easy-to-use reference handbook 1999– Page 449 "A neologism is a newly coined word or phrase or a new usage of an existing word or phrase."
  5. ↑ Lynne Bowker, Jennifer Pearson Working With Specialized Language 2002 Page 214 "Neologisms can also be formed in another way, however, by assigning a new meaning to an existing word."
  6. ↑ Ole Nedergaard Thomsen Competing models of linguistic change: evolution and beyond 2006 – Page 68 "Extensions, by contrast, are applications of extant means in new usage. Note that since individual speakers differ in their command of their shared tradition of speaking, one person's Extension may be experienced by another as a Neologism"
  7. ↑ Michael D. Picone Anglicisms, Neologisms and Dynamic French 1996 – Page 3 "Proceeding now to the task of defining terms, I will begin with the more general term 'neologism'. ...A neologism is any new word, morpheme or locution and any new meaning for a preexistent word, morpheme or locution that appears in a language. ... Likewise, any semantic extension of a preexistent word, morpheme or locution.. but is also, by accepted definition, a neologism."
  8. ↑ G E Berrios (2009) Neologisms. History of Psychiatry 20: 480–496
  9. ↑ "Most of us are able to combine ideas so that they are consistent with some underlying theme, but psychopaths seem to have difficulty doing so. This helps to explain the wild inconsistencies and contradictions that frequently characterize their speech. It may also account for their use of neologisms (combining the basic components of words – syllables – in ways that seem logical to them but inappropriate to others)." Robert D. Hare (1999), Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us. Guildford Press, 've%20serially%20killed%3F%22&pg=PA137#v=onepage&q=neologisms&f=false p. 137
  10. ↑ P. J. McKenna, Schizophrenia and Related Syndromes. Page 363.
  11. ↑ Neologisms and idiosyncratic language in autistic speakers. J Autism Dev Disord. 1991 Jun;21(2):109-30.
  12. ↑ B Butterworth, Hesitation and the production of verbal paraphasias and neologisms in jargon aphasia. Brain Lang, 1979
  13. ↑ Wood, J., "The Nuttall Encyclopædia: Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge" (1907),
  14. ↑ Christine Byrne (October 2, 2013). "How To Celebrate Thanksgivukkah, The Best Holiday Of All Time". Buzzfeed. Retrieved October 10, 2013. 
  15. ↑ Stu Bykofsky (October 22, 2012). "Thanks for Thanukkah!". Philly.com. Retrieved October 11, 2013. 

References

  • Alego, John. Fifty Years among the New Words: A Dictionary of Neologisms, 1941–1991. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1991. ISBN 0-521-41377-X.
  • Alego, John, et al. "Neology Forum." Dictionaries: Journal of the Dictionary Society of North America 16 (1995): 1–108.
  • Fontaine, M. Funny Words in Plautine Comedy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. Books.Google.com
  • Fowler, H.W., "The King's English", Chapter I. Vocabulary, Neologism, 2nd ed. 1908.
  • Wood, J., "The Nuttall Encyclopædia: Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge" (1907),

External links

Look up neologism or protologism in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
General information
Indices
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.