protologism
Freshly invented term
A protologism is a newly coined word or phrase that hasn't yet gained widespread acceptance or dictionary recognition—a word still in its infancy, proposed but not yet established.
The term itself is a protologism, coined in 2005.
Most protologisms never catch on; the few that do eventually become neologisms and then simply words: Back when "blog" was just a protologism, people still said "web log."
Invented term or currency
- word-formationCreating new vocabulary items
- lexicographyCompiling word reference books
- etymologyWord origin study
- morphologyStudy of structural forms
lexicon · vocabulary · semantics · terminology · nomenclature · morpheme · wordsmith · derivation
Not written down
- undocumentedNot officially recorded
- uncodifiedNot systematically recorded
- unstandardizedNot made uniform
- unrecognizedNot identified or acknowledged
uncatalogued · informal · grassroots · bottom-up · crowd-sourced · organic · vernacular · colloquial
Newly made, not stale
- originalFirst or inventive
- unprecedentedNever having occurred before
- nascentBeginning to develop
- incipientStarting to develop
embryonic · infant · fledgling · untested · experimental · speculative · tentative · provisional
Skilled prose artisan
- coinagesNewly created words
- ShakespeareanOf the Stratford playwright
- SeussianPlayfully absurd and inventive
- OrwellianEvoking oppressive surveillance states
coinage
Invented term or currency
- word-formationCreating new vocabulary items
- lexicographyCompiling word reference books
- etymologyWord origin study
morphology · lexicon · vocabulary · semantics · terminology · nomenclature · morpheme · wordsmith · derivation · compounding
unrecorded
Not written down
- undocumentedNot officially recorded
- uncodifiedNot systematically recorded
- unstandardizedNot made uniform
unrecognized · uncatalogued · informal · grassroots · bottom-up · crowd-sourced · organic · vernacular · colloquial · emergent
fresh
Newly made, not stale
- originalFirst or inventive
- unprecedentedNever having occurred before
- nascentBeginning to develop
incipient · embryonic · infant · fledgling · untested · experimental · speculative · tentative · provisional · proposed
wordsmith
Skilled prose artisan
- coinagesNewly created words
- ShakespeareanOf the Stratford playwright
- SeussianPlayfully absurd and inventive
- word formationaffixes, affixation, roots, infix, morphemes