neologism

neologism, new word or expression. The term also refers to the adoption of a new definition for an existing word or expression.

Technological advances are among the main drivers of word creation and adoption. In many cases, neologisms come about as names for new objects, such as airplane and television, or to describe actions related to those objects’ use, such as the verbs taxi and broadcast. In the Internet age the verb google came into common use, derived from the name of the popular search engine Google. Likewise, the word tweet (originally, “to make a short, high sound”) was analogously refitted to refer to a brief message distributed on the social media platform Twitter (from twitter, “the short, high sounds that birds make”). New modes of communication, with names like social networks and texting, gave rise to emoji for a new manner of expressing complex emotions—and have fed into the diffusion of new adjectives that describe those emotions, such as hangry. Innovations termed smartphones and Web applications have enabled users to, it is said, crowdfund or uber places, terms describing actions that are quick and effortless compared with fundraising or calling a taxicab.

Social and cultural factors also frequently lead to neologisms. Sometimes those factors prompt the reification of abstract ideas whose concepts are not necessarily new but require more expedient expression in public discourse. Sportswashing, for instance, was coined in 2015 to describe the use of athletic events to burnish one’s reputation when facing controversy. The phenomenon itself was old, but discussions on the matter coincided with growing concerns about the decline of human rights in certain countries. After the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, social distancing became popularized to describe the practice of maintaining a physical distance in social interactions. The term, interpreted as the gerund of a compound verb, then came into use as a productively inflected verb, as in the question “How long do we have to social distance?” In other cases a new word is adopted in place of an existing one to reflect a current social context. In the 2010s the word woke euphemistically came into use to describe an idea that was considered politically progressive; as the political environment in the United States became increasingly polarized, the word was repurposed as a pejorative synonym for liberal or left-leaning.

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Slang expressions constitute a type of neologism that is typically informal (e.g., fam), ephemeral (e.g., groovy), and restricted in use by a particular demographic or social group. Some slang expressions, however, become lasting neologisms that eventually enter the standard lexicon (e.g., fizzle or jazz).