Protologism

Protologism is a term coined in 2003^[1] by the American literary theorist Mikhail Epstein in reference to a word coined, by an individual or a small group, that has not yet been published independently of the coiner(s).^[2][3] The word may be proposed, may be extremely new, or may not be established outside a very limited group of people.^[4][5] A protologism becomes a neologism as soon as it appears in published press, on a website, or in a book, independently of the coiner.^[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[]

The word protologism describes one stage in the development of neologisms, at which a word is proposed, extremely new, or not established outside a very limited group of people.^[4][5] A protologism is coined to fill a gap in the language, with the hope of its becoming an accepted word.^[8][9] When it was created, the term protologism was autological; it was an example of the thing it describes.^[10] Epstein coined the term by combining the Greek words protos and logos:

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.^[11]

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.^[11] There is no fixed rule determining when a protologism becomes a stable neologism.^[12] 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.^[13]

See also[]

• Hapax legomenon, a word occurring only once in a given context, such as in the works of a particular author
• 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.
• 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[]

Look up protologism in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• List of protologisms^{[dead link]}
• List of protologisms by topic^{[dead link]}