Questions tagged [neologisms]
A neologism is a newly coined word or phrase that has not yet been accepted into mainstream language.
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What is a natural-sounding verb form for the word dorveille?
I am writing a poem and I found the word dorveille, which means to be in a state of being half asleep and half awake. Here's an example text:
In the preindustrial West, most people slept in two ...
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Are there any English dictionaries that include the (new?) word 'go-withs'?
An online word game recently had the words brat, bun, mustard, and sauerkraut listed under the category “bratwurst go-withs”. I’ve never seen this word before, but googling suggests that it’s being ...
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I have byhearted the poem [closed]
I know that I have learnt the poem by heart is idiomatic and correct native English. But most Indians, even the teachers of English use byheart as a verb. One of the English professors who I worked ...
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Is there a good term for a 'paper trail' that actually consists of e-mail communication?
I've seen "digital paper trail" and "electronic paper trail", but I'm wondering if there is a better (more elegant, widely used?) term for a record of electronic communication that ...
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Is "rewardist" a real word/profession?
There's a new TV show called Tracker about a man who goes around the country helping people find missing loved ones. Rather than describing himself as a private investigator, he says he's a "...
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Sets, setts and settes
In the Oxford English Dictionary, sett and sette are listed as variants of set, and it appears to me, from the links, that such use is attested as from 1387.
I want to use sett and sette, in addition ...
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Term for a word based on an initialism
I recently came across the word 'geeb', a pronunciation and "wordification" of 'GB', itself an initialism of 'gravity bong'. It reminded me of 'okay', which has a similar relationship with '...
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Word for nonce antonyms formed by reversing idioms
Someone recently used "on-limits" to describe something that was allowed, i.e. not "off-limits." The same person subsequently described unplugging something as "plugging it ...
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How common is 'rider' in the sense '[a]n amendment or addition to an entertainer's performance contract'?
I came across a usage of the common word rider on a TV cookery show that I'd never met before. On checking, I found just two online dictionaries with the very specific definition
rider [noun] [UK ...
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Is there a word for something that was formerly a social norm but is no longer acceptable?
I've been reading a lot of various classic literature, and at times there is the sort of casual misogyny or racism that was commonplace and (within certain cultures) the social norm at that time. Such ...
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Is there a term for a button or feature that does not actually do anything, other than giving the user a sense of control?
I was wondering if there was a one-word term for this. I suppose a classic example might be the "Door Close" button on an elevator. Essentially, a working feature that apparently does ...
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Inspiration catalyst? Looking for a term that describes seemingly out of the blue inspiration
I'm looking for a term for a curious situation that I've found myself in a couple of times.
A person discusses a new concept/invention.
I am a part of that conversation or simply overhear it.
I ...
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Has the notion of an addonym - or a word with a similar meaning - been described in the English language before?
Background
In the near future, I am planning on publishing my first scientific article as a PhD candidate. My surname is very common in countries like Germany and Austria, and my first name is quite ...
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What is the status of logically pointless adjectives and adverbs, such as chairy or chairly? [closed]
Adjectives and adverbs can be formed by adding "y" or "ly" to e.g. a noun, such as:
heart -> hearty, heartily
However, sometimes these words are not in use, or make no logical ...
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When did the expression “hustle culture” emerge?
The expression “hustle culture” refers to workplace environments that place an intense focus on productivity, ambition, and success, with little regard for rest, self care, or any sense of work-life ...
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Speed Checked By Radar: Synhermeneia?
Is there a word to describe an ambiguous phrase whose alternate meanings all happen to be relevant and true in the context?
The example that fascinates me is the road sign "Speed Checked By Radar&...
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Is “to bottom line” actually gaining traction?
The following extract from grammarist.com suggests that the idiomatic expression “bottom line” is mainly used as a noun but it is increasingly also being used as a verb:
By the 1980s, the term the ...
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Prospective means future-looking, retrospective means past-looking. What means present-looking?
This is actually two questions. One: is there a word that means present-looking? And: if there isn't, what should the neologism be? Spective? Conspective?
Note that although this is a serious question,...
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What does the word "verifactive" mean?
In Introduction to Functional Grammar, in the section on conjunction, Halliday labels the conjuncts "actually", "in fact" and "as a matter of fact" as "verifactive&...
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What’s the English for “ecomostro”?
The Italian term “ecomostro” is often used to indicate:
an ugly and environmentally damaging building. (Collins)
Here is an example:
(Linkiesta.it)
Is there a term, a neologism for “ecomostro”. In ...
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Opposite of "Smart" electronic devices?
There are many things today that have the term "smart" attached to them. These are most often electronics devices or machines that have embedded computer hardware and software. Some of these ...
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Is there a term for insincere prefacing?
Is there a specific term for the practice of prefacing a statement with another statement that is in contrast (in spirit) to what is being said?
There is a related concept called apophasis, where you ...
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Is there a word for people who revel in freebies that isn't pejorative?
I was looking for a word for someone that is really into getting free things, that doesn't necessarily carry a negative connotation. I'd describe them as:
that person that shows up to random ...
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Does 'genocide' cover mass murder of a people by sex or gender? Is there a better word?
Genocide defined:
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical (sic), racial or religious group,
...
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Can "coincide" be use transitively?
The New York Times today has an unusual use of "coincide":
NYT
Looking at common-cold coronaviruses, some researchers have predicted that SARS-CoV-2 will become a seasonal winter infection ...
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Word for someone who abstains from eating mammal-derived foods (meat and milk)
Is there a single word that refers to someone who doesn't eat food derived from mammals? This person would eat fish and other seafood, poultry, eggs, but would not eat the meat of mammals, nor ...
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How is the singular noun "vote" used compared to the plural "votes"?
Being a big fan of fivethirtyeight.com, and political nerdishness in general, I have repeatedly run into a plural use of the singular nominal 'vote,' most often in the phrase 'percentage of vote.'
...
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Burritoise Vs Burrito?
I was explaining something using an analogy with burritos. If I apply the same burrito analogy to other examples, am I Burritoising those examples or Burritoing them?
By analogy, say you were banned ...
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Where did the word red-tapism come from?
What is the origin of the word red-tapism?
And what does it actually mean?
Lexico says it first appeared in the mid-19th century in the
Cobbett's Weekly Political Register, a London paper. Searching ...
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"Not-Noun"s: Neologism or not?
From the title, you can tell that I don't actually know what this phenomenon is called, if it has a name at all, nor if it has already existed for a long time. My own searching has been unhelpful, for ...
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What is "musset"?
I came across the word "musset" in Gregory Maguire's Wicked--
Her green traveling gown with its inset panels of ochre musset suggested wealth, while the black shawl draping just so about ...
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What would the opposite of "orthopedic" be?
So, I'm wondering, what could the opposite of "orthopedic" be? More precisely, if a force is "orthopedic" in nature (so it would give a correct posture), what would a force that ...
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Is there a word for pleasing numbers?
Similar to how euphonic describes words that sound pleasing, is there a word for numbers that feel pleasing and comfortable? Like 12:34, $20, or 7.17? I ask because it seems to be an important concept ...
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What’s the English for “democrature”, a dictatorship pretending to be a democracy through fraudulent elections?
The French term democrature (from
democratie + dictature) is defined as:
Dictature déguisée en démocratie par l’organisation d’élections non libres, contrôlées et/ou frauduleuses. Par extension, tout ...
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Different name for the strip of holey paper from a spiral notebook
When students rip out papers from a spiral notebook, the edge has a row of little holes. Unlike when I was young, these pages have perforations running down the right side so that the strips can be ...
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Neolog / prefix for use with bubble+ology [closed]
I want to coin a word that means the study of financial bubbles. After learning that Bubbleology is some kind of metropolitan tea beverage, my immediate hunch of "Bubbleology" lost a great ...
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Coining a gramatically right word for a newly devised method [duplicate]
I am writing a research paper in which a new method is devised.
In this method a mathematical function is rebuilt by combining some conical functions (apexes).
Is it grammatically right to name it The ...
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Word to describe a PDF file produced by converting from another format (for example, from HTML)
A month ago, I asked whether it would be correct to call an HTML page saved as PDF file a converted PDF file.
"Converted PDF file" - what does it really mean?
According to Greybeard, the ...
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What does "te-thrum" mean?
I'm reading Malcolm Lowry's letters and his first letter to Conrad Aiken finishes like this:
te-thrum te-thrum te-thrum te-thrum, Malcolm Lowry
Does anyone know what "te-thrum" mean in this ...
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Is there a term describing countries taking foreign citizens as hostage?
English is my second language, and I am wondering is there a term that describes when countries take foreign citizens or dual citizens as hostage or arrest them on conspiracy/espionage charges all to ...
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How far can one go in creating new words?
Apparently the word disturbingly exists, but undisturbingly doesn't. However, I felt it better served to convey my meaning and was sure that any reader would understand what I mean. I also put it ...
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A toned down term to replace "orthodoxy" in sociology of art
I think this community could help me a lot. In sociology of culture the term orthodoxy refers to ideas held by most and imposed by cultural institutions, so that the "doxa", or opinion, is ...
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Two 'x's in "anti-vaxxer"
I have always found myself impulsively and automatically spelling "anti-vaxxer" with two 'x's, and a Google search indicates that most other media sources did the same; however, I can't ...
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Why isn't "Verbing" always allowed?
Why are varnish (varnish the truth),gloss (glossed over her faults), and paint (paints him more innocent than the evidence suggests) used metaphorically, but not lacquer?
user403195
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Use of 'went' as a noun
I have come across its use as a proper noun in an 1895 deed:
"...all that one piece of pasture lying at Whatling Went."
So I wondered if there is any evidence for the the use of 'went' as ...
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Word or intuitive neologism for "(unhealthy) infatuation with gold"
The easy picks:
greed
avarice
They get the message across, but are too general. I want a word that narrows the meaning to only gold -- not just desire for wealth / material gain.
I tried a neologism:...
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Word for an all seeing society/government type
I'm looking for a word to mean a society or government type where everything is visible or known to everyone, similar to omniscient. For example, if everyone (including government) can see everything ...
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when and where is first occurence of word "zap"?
when and where is first occurence of word "zap" ?
Online Etymology dictionnary mentions comic strip Buck Rogers but without any precise date or quotation
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Practice of splitting a web article in many chunks
Some sites have the (execrable) custom of splitting a web article in many small chunks. Example: the article starting at
https://es.goodtimepost.com/niagara-falls/
is divided in 38 chunks. In each ...
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Can statues being pulled down in #BlackLivesMatter be called 'iconoclasm'?
During the worldwide protests of #BlackLivesMatter, a large number of statues commemorating colonial conquest in the modern era have been pulled down by protesters.
Is it appropriate to call them '...
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