protologism

English

Etymology

Coined by Mikhail Epstein in 2003, from Ancient Greek πρῶτος (prôtos, “first”) +‎ Ancient Greek λόγος (lógos, “word”) +‎ -ism, by analogy with prototype and neologism.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /pɹəʊˈtɒləˌdʒɪzm/

Noun

protologism (plural protologisms)

1. (neologism) A newly coined word or phrase defined in the hope that it will become common; a recently created term possibly in narrow use but not yet acknowledged.
   • 2007 April, William Skidelsky, “Will's words”, in Prospect:

     This word is so new-fangled that it hasn't yet been accepted as part of the language—which makes it not a "neologism" but a "protologism."

   • 2009, Heinz R. Gisel, “And Then There Was Light”, in In Foodture We Trust‎^[3], →ISBN, page 123:

     The biophotonics hypothesis finds support from a completely different and unexpected angle: the protologism “epi-genetics” - or the “Biology of Belief” was coined by Dr. Bruce Lipton, who has also been a pioneer in applying the principles of quantum physics to the field of cellular biology.

   • 2009 December 12, Satendra Singh with Shikha Gautam, “Animation-Based Lectures in Renal Physiology: Transcendence into Metacognition”, in Journal of Educational Evaluation for Health Professions‎^[4], volume 6, →ISSN:

     The linguistic invention-animation-based lectures (ABL) as a protologism was first used by us in 2009.

   • 2010 August, Alexander Humez et al., Short Cuts, A Guide to Oaths, Ring Tones, Ransom Notes, Famous Last Words, and Other Forms of Minimalist Communication, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, preface, unpaged:

     Short Cuts examines a wide range of minimalist discursive genres as varied as the bank robber note, the oath of allegiance, the sniglet, and the Facebook profile, focusing on some, mentioning others only in passing (e.g., the pickup line and the protologism), and leaving others unmentioned.

   • 2011, Hubertus Busche, Departure for Modern Europe: A Handbook of Early Modern Philosophy (1400-1700), Meiner Verlag, →ISBN, page 1221:

     So, in many contexts, he will just go back to the use of words predating his own neologization and pitilessly abandon a ‘protologism’ with which he’s not comfortable.

   • 2013 July 12, “3rd annual ‘Write On, Oceanside’ — July 20”, “Community Notes” [5], La Prensa San Diego:

     Attendees will be encouraged to try their hand at protologism (creating new words) and become the Shake-spears ^[sic] of Oceanside!

   • 2014 October 7, Janet Kemp, The Star-Spangled Banner, 170 Success Secrets, Emereo Publishing, unpaged:

     Among the workforce and scholars, the abbreviation for the school's designation, CSKYWLA (pronounced seeskeeWAHlah), has been minted as a protologism to that this meaning has specified – to be sanctioned by grant, nonviolence, and communal change.

   • 2015, Peter O. Müller, Word-Formation: An International Handbook of the Languages of Europe, Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN:

     Ėpštejn's projective dictionary should be a collection of protologisms, a protologism being a new word, coined to designate a new phenomenon or to fill in blank spaces and semantic voids in the lexical-conceptual system, as he proclaimed in 2003.

Usage notes

• The word is absent from online English dictionaries except in Macmillan. It is approximately 750 times less common than the word neologism.

Synonyms

• sniglet

Coordinate terms

• neologism

Translations

a newly coined word or phrase defined in the hope that it will become common

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 首造詞／首造词 (shǒuzàocí)

• Esperanto: protologismo
• Finnish: protologismi
• French: protologisme (fr) m
• German: Protologismus m (rare)
• Greek: πρωτολογισμός (el) m (protologismós)
• Korean: 급조어 (ko) (geupjo'eo)
• Polish: protologizm m
• Portuguese: protologismo (pt) m
• Romanian: protologism n
• Russian: протологи́зм (ru) m (protologízm)
• Serbo-Croatian: protologizam m
• Spanish: protologismo m
• Swedish: protologism (sv) c

Further reading

• Definition of Protologism, BuzzWord at Macmillan Dictionary