''Protologism'' is a term coined in 2003 by the American
literary theorist Mikhail Epstein in reference to a
word
A word is a basic element of language that carries an objective or practical meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no conse ...
coined, by an individual or a small group, that has not yet been published independently of the coiner(s). The word may be proposed, may be extremely new, or may not be established outside a very limited group of people. A protologism becomes a ''
neologism
A neologism Ancient_Greek.html"_;"title="_from_Ancient_Greek">Greek_νέο-_''néo''(="new")_and_λόγος_/''lógos''_meaning_"speech,_utterance"is_a_relatively_recent_or_isolated_term,_word,_or_phrase_that_may_be_in_the_process_of_entering_com ...
'' as soon as it appears in published press, on a website, or in a book, independently of the coiner. A word whose developmental stage is between that of a protologism (freshly coined) and a neologism (a new word) is a ''prelogism''.
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. A protologism is coined to fill a gap in the language, with the hope of its becoming an accepted word. When it was created, the term ''protologism'' was
autological; it was an example of the thing it describes. Epstein coined the term by combining the Greek words ' and ':
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. There is no fixed rule determining when a protologism becomes a stable neologism. According to Kerry Maxwell, author of ''Brave New Words'':
See also
* ''
Hapax legomenon
In corpus linguistics, a ''hapax legomenon'' ( also or ; ''hapax legomena''; sometimes abbreviated to ''hapax'', plural ''hapaxes'') is a word or an expression that occurs only once within a context: either in the written record of an entire ...
'', a word occurring only once in a given context, such as in the works of a particular author
*
Neologism
A neologism Ancient_Greek.html"_;"title="_from_Ancient_Greek">Greek_νέο-_''néo''(="new")_and_λόγος_/''lógos''_meaning_"speech,_utterance"is_a_relatively_recent_or_isolated_term,_word,_or_phrase_that_may_be_in_the_process_of_entering_com ...
, 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
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Further reading
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External links
List of protologisms
List of protologisms by topic
{{Use dmy dates, date=September 2020
2000s neologisms
Lexicology
Terminology
Linguistic theories and hypotheses
Literary theory
Linguistic morphology