What Is a Neologism? Definition and Examples

I’m unsure of the answer. Just google it.

Camila thinks her boyfriend might be ghosting her.

The marketing team seems to take a lot of selfies.

Many of us have spoken or heard expressions including words such as those identified above.

While many principles of good grammar remained fixed in English, our vocabulary is always evolving. Factors such as technology, social change, current pop culture, younger generations, and simply human creativity are always developing new entries for our language.

These words have their own category.

What Is a Neologism?

A neologism is a newly coined word or phrase or an existing word or phrase used in a new way. It is current but not yet fixed within everyday language.

Most neologisms form as invented, esoteric references among groups (e.g., teenagers, scientists, musicians, government). They gain traction through repetition, especially in the media.

We will often introduce a neologism when we lack a readily available word for a concept, an existing term lacks proper detail, or a speaker is not familiar with an existing term to use.

Neologisms are typically formed as:

an entirely new word,

a new combination of existing words,

a new meaning for an existing word, or

an abbreviation or an acronym.

Neologisms that prove to serve a needed function not satisfied by other choices can survive to become vernacular. Examples of those that have outlasted their initial trend include email, the cloud, streaming, and meme.

Other neologisms fall the way of Flash websites, silicone wristbands, and Pokémon Go: e.g., YOLO, adulting, as if!, cray-cray.

In the last few decades, corporate America has given us doomed shooting stars such as synergy, dot-com, thought leader, and paradigm shift as well.

Neologisms: A Quick History

The term “neologism” appears to have first been used in English in 1772. It was borrowed from the French néologisme (1734). The French had derived the word from the Greek νέο (néo), meaning “new,” and λόγος (lógos), meaning “speech, utterance.”

Neologisms have been with us for a long time as we’ve adapted our language to our changing world and knowledge. The following are just a few that were coined anew during their time.

Word	Year	Origin
utopia	1516	Ancient Greek for “place”
typhoon	1588	Chinese for “hurricane”
compute	1631	Latin for “with” and “to think”
origami	1880	Japanese for “paper folding”
robot	1921	Czech writer Karel Čapek
laser	1960	Acronym for “light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation”

Neologisms: Common Sources

Neologisms can arise from just about anywhere, but many derive from the following origins. You’ll note their relation to human change and innovation.

Science and technology: New inventions inspire new words.
deepfake, smartphone, podcast, metaverse, livestream

Health and physiology: New words emerge from medical need and discovery.
burnout, trauma-informed, neurodivergent, social distancing

Web and social media: Online communication formats spark new language.
doomscrolling, influencer, clickbait, viral, troll

Other languages: English vocabulary has always drawn words from foreign tongues.
karaoke (Japanese), café (French), zeitgeist (German), yoga (Sanskrit)

Compounding and blending: Existing words are shortened or combined.
brunch (breakfast + lunch), webinar (web + seminar), bromance (brothers [good friends] + romance [close bond])

Acronyms and abbreviations: Complex phrases are compressed into short and shareable units.
DM (direct message), FOMO (fear of missing out), IMO (in my opinion)

Slang and youth culture: Informal speech experiments sometimes enter the mainstream.
rizz, delulu, bruh, hangry, skibidi

Genericized brand names: Some product names are used as nouns or verbs so often that they lose their original brand status and become vernacular.
google, kleenex, photoshop, zoom, uber

Politics and economics: Current developments can call for new terms.
Brexit, polywork, polarization, infodemic, weaponize

Neologisms: Other Forms

The following are a few more distinctive ways in which neologisms are made.

Clipping: shortening an existing word with the meaning intact
trigonometry > trig, fabulous > fab

Derivation: forming new words by adding a suffix, a prefix, or both
blog > blogger, friend > unfriend, connect > hyperconnectivity

Shifted meaning: inverting meanings that create initially esoteric communication among groups
bad = good, talented; sick = cool, impressive; wicked = extremely good, very, really

Neologisms: Why We Need Them

Neologisms are necessary because language is a living system. By appearing as our world keeps changing, they let us verbally capture the modern. Words such as blog and emoji did not exist thirty years ago, but along the way, we came to need them.

They also facilitate our innate inclination to bond and share in groups. We see this particularly among young people as they connect in schools and communities and as collective generations. Neologisms give young people a sense of membership and understanding.

Because they serve the present, neologisms become markers of the past as well. They reflect who we are and what is happening in our culture and society at different places in time.

Neologisms further show our love of word play to express ourselves, tighten meanings, create humor, and make language more efficient.

As we follow neologisms, we will also want to note they are a form of jargon, and jargon requires an even greater awareness of an audience. We would not load a letter to retirees with Generation Alpha slang, for example, nor would we communicate with members of a Star Wars fan club with political and government catch phrases.

When we consider our audiences and whether certain new words and phrases speak to them, we can make neologisms colorful components of compelling writing and speech.

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