In linguistics, a protologism is a newly used or coined word, a nonce word, that has been repeated but not gained acceptance beyond its original users or been published independently of the coiners.[1][2] The word may be proposed, may be extremely new, or may be established only within a very limited group of people.[3][4] A protologism becomes a neologism as soon as it appears in published press, on a website, or in a book, independently of the coiner[5]—though, most definitively, in a dictionary.[6] A word whose developmental stage is between that of a protologism (freshly coined) and a neologism (a new word) is a prelogism.[7]
Overview
Protologisms constitute one stage in the development of neologisms. A protologism is coined to fill a gap in the language, with the hope of its becoming an accepted word.[8][9] As an example, when the word protologism itself was coined—in 2003[10] by the American literary theorist Mikhail Epstein—it was autological: an example of the thing it describes.[11]
About the concept and his name for it, Epstein wrote:
I suggest calling such brand new words 'protologisms' (from Greek protos, meaning 'first, original' and Greek logos, meaning 'word'; cf. prototype, protoplasm). The protologism is a freshly minted word not yet widely accepted. It is a verbal prototype, which may eventually be adopted for public service or remain a whim of linguo-poetic imagination.[12]
According to Epstein, every word in use started out as a protologism, subsequently became a neologism, and then gradually grew to be part of the language.[12]
There is no fixed rule determining when a protologism becomes a stable neologism,[13] and according to Kerry Maxwell, author of Brave New Words:
[A] protologism is unlikely to make the leap to neologism status unless society connects with the word or identifies a genuine need for it [...] there's no guarantee that simple exposure to these creations will be effective in getting them used, as discovered by British inventor Sir James Dyson when he fruitlessly attempted to promote a verb dyson (by analogy with hoover) in the early 2000s.[14]
See also
- Hapax legomenon, a word occurring only once in a given context, such as in the works of a particular author
- Neologism, a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not yet been fully accepted into mainstream language.
- Nonce word, a word created for a single occasion
- Sniglet, a humorous word made up to describe something for which no dictionary word exists
Notes
References
- Aitken, James K. (2013). "Neologisms: A Septuagint Problem". In Aitken, J.K.; Clines, J.M.S.; Maier, C.M. (eds.). Interested Readers: Essays on the Hebrew Bible in Honor of David J. A. Clines. Atlanta, Georgia: Society of Biblical Literature. ISBN 978-1-58983-926-7.
- Eismann, Wolfgang (2015). "Individual initiatives and concepts for expanding the lexicon in Russian". In Müller, Peter O.; et al. (eds.). Word-Formation: An International Handbook of the Languages of Europe: Volume 3. Berlin, Germany; Boston, USA: Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-037566-4.
- Epstein, Mikhail (2011). PreDictionary: Experiments in Verbal Creativity. Franc-Tireur. ISBN 978-1-257-83189-0. OCLC 758864333.
- Epstein, Mikhail (2012). The Transformative Humanities: A Manifesto. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4411-6094-2.
- Gryniuk, D. (2015). "On Institutionalization and De-Institutionalization of Late 1990s Neologisms". In Malec, W.; Rusinek, M. (eds.). Within Language, Beyond Theories (Volume III): Discourse Analysis, Pragmatics and Corpus-based Studies. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4438-7822-7.
- Humez, Alexander; Humez, Nicholas; Flynn, Rob (3 August 2010). Short Cuts: A Guide to Oaths, Ring Tones, Ransom Notes, Famous Last Words, and Other Forms of Minimalist Communication. Oxford University Press. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-19-538913-5.
protologism.
- Maxwell, Kerry (28 October 2014). "BuzzWord: protologism". Macmillan.
- Moore, Andrew (January 2011). "The hypothesis' ambassador". BioEssays. 33 (1): 1. doi:10.1002/bies.201090064. PMID 21157784. S2CID 46119825.
- Miller, D. Gary (2014). English Lexicogenesis. OUP Oxford. ISBN 978-0-19-100420-9.
- Solnyshkina, Marina I. (2009). "Lexicographical Basis for Russian Naval Sublanguage Dictionary: Theoretical Considerations". In Karpova, Olga; Kartashkova, Faina (eds.). Essays on Lexicon, Lexicography, Terminography in Russian, American and Other Cultures. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4438-0645-9.
Further reading
- Skidelsky, William (April 2007). "Will's words". Prospect.
External links
- List of protologisms Archived 24 September 2018 at the Wayback Machine
- List of protologisms by topic Archived 7 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine