NEOLOGISM
Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language
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1998
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© Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language 1998, originally published by Oxford University Press 1998. (Hide copyright information)
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NEOLOGISM, A new WORD or sense of a word and the coining or use of new words and senses. Most neologisms in English belong in the following categories: (1) Compounding:
couch potato, someone constantly slumped on a couch watching television:
video-conferencing, a number of people taking part in a conference or conferences by means of video equipment rather than all meeting in one place. (2)
DERIVATION:
yuppie, formed from
yup, the initial letters of the phrase ‘young urban professional’ by adding the suffix
-ie;
yuppiedom, the condition of being a yuppie, formed from
yuppie by adding the further suffix
-dom. (3) Shifting meaning:
spin, a journalist's term for a special bias or slant given to a piece of writing. (4) Extension in grammatical function: the nouns
quest and
host used as verbs. (5)
ABBREVIATION: in Stock Exchange usage,
arb from
arbitrager or
arbitrageur, one who sells securities or commodities simultaneously in different markets to benefit from unequal prices; the computer acronym
GIGO, meaning
garbage in,
garbage out. (6)
BACK-FORMATION:
disinform formed from
disinformation (and not the reverse). (7) Blending:
harmolodic mixing
harmony and
melodic. (8)
BORROWING: loanwords such as
glasnost from Russian;
CALQUES or
LOAN TRANSLATIONS such as
found object from French
objet trouvé. (9) Very rarely,
ROOT-CREATION, or
COINAGE from sounds with no previous known meaning whatever:
googol,
Kodak (both apparently formed
ex nihilo). See
BARBARISM,
BLEND,
COMPOUND,
JOURNALESE,
NONCE WORD,
SEMANTIC CHANGE,
TIMESPEAK,
WORD-FORMATION.
DECADES OF NEOLOGIZING
New words are often the subject of scorn because they are new, because they are perceived as unaesthetically or improperly formed, or because they are considered to be unnecessary. They are, however, a normal part of language change; with frequent use and the passage of time they become unremarked items in everyday use, as can be seen from many of the items in the following representative decade-by-decade lists of neologisms:
1940s.
acronym, airlift, apartheid, atomic age, automation, baby-sit, bikini, blockbuster, call girl, circuitry, cold war, crash landing, debrief, declassify, doublethink, flying saucer, freeze-dry, genocide, gobbledygook, gremlin, guided missile, hydrogen bomb, nerve gas, petrochemical, quisling, radar, snorkel, spaceship, starlet, tape recorder, task force, vegan, VIP, xerography, zero in.
1950s.
A-OK, automate, beatnik, brainwashing, common market, cosmonaut, countdown, desegregation, discotheque, do-it-yourself, egghead, hard sell, H-bomb, hotline, Kremlinology, LSD McCarthyism, moonlighting, moonshot, Ms, name-dropping, nuke, overkill, panelist, paramedic, parenting, sci-fi, scuba, senior citizen, sex kitten, shopping mall, soft sell, space medicine, sputnik.
1960s.
affirmative action, biodegradable, bionics, brain drain, cable television, counter-productive, cryonics, cybernation, disco, Eurocrat, Eurodollar, fastfood, genetic engineering, jet lag, microelectronics, microwave oven, pleabargaining, pop art, postcode/postal code (BrE), quasar, reverse discrimination, sitcom, space shuttle, theme park, tokenism, underachiever, uptight, ZIP Code (AmE).
1970s.
boat people, bottom line, condo, corn row, downsize, ecocatastrophe, ecofreak, empty nester, flextime, gas guzzler, gasohol, hit list, junk food, Legionnaire's Disease, Mediagate, miniseries, nouvelle cuisine, petrodollars, shuttle diplomacy, supply-side economics, Watergate, Watergatology.
1980s.
cash point, channelling, couch potato, Filofax, glasnost, golden handcuffs, golden handshake, golden parachute, gridlock, home shopping, kiss-and-tell book, necklacing, New Agers, perestroika, personal organizer, power breakfast, silent majority, telemarketing, wholefoodie, whoopie, yuppie, yuppiedom.
1990s.
New words which may become established include: Britpop, carjacking, charm offensive, ethnic cleansing, European Union, home page, intranet (source:
The Oxford Dictionary of New Words, 1997).
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Mr. Ramsay, Robert Falcon Scott, and heroic death.(Essay)
Magazine article from: Mosaic (Winnipeg); 12/1/2007; ; 700+ words
; ...placing his journey in the historical context of Robert Falcon Scott's fatal expedition to the South Pole and in the...convention of triumphant defeat that was perfected by Robert Falcon Scott in the narratives he constructed of his own death...
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The story of Captain Robert Falcon Scott.
Magazine article from: Appleseeds; 2/1/2003; ; 700+ words
; In 1911, Captain Robert Falcon Scott and his men plodded across...first. Disappointed, Scott and his men set out on...On March 29, 1912, Scott wrote in his diary...getting weaker ..." Robert Scott and the men with...
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Robert Falcon Scott sailed with over 1,200 books for Antarctic expedition
News Wire article from: The Hindustan Times; 12/26/2007; 438 words
; ...and Antarctic explorer, Captain Robert Falcon Scott, was carrying more than 1,200...RSS Discovery. He revealed that Scott's library on the ship was stuffed...History of England, and Sir Walter Scott's Waverley novels. Scott was...
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The hero who melted On Friday Christie's will auction items found beside the frozen body of Robert Falcon Scott on his ill-fated journey to the South Pole. Those who cling to his legend will bid for his goggles, his stove, even his biscuits. But no amount of Huntley & Palmer digestives can disguise the truth: that Scott was indecisive, incompetent and, when it came to eating huskies, surprisingly unadventurous
Newspaper article from: The Independent - London; 9/15/1999; ; 700+ words
; ...benefit descendants of Captain Robert Falcon Scott, a number of his relics will come...and then his son, Sir Peter Scott, kept in a suitcase in a bank...Well, why not? The last words Scott wrote in his journal were "For...
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Cold comfort. (The South Polar Times).(Robert Falcon Scott and the British National Antarctic Expedition/Marco Polo)
Magazine article from: Geographical; 1/1/2003; ; 700+ words
; ...National Antarctic Expedition, led by Commander Robert Falcon Scott, explored the Antarctic continent, gathering information...inspection by King Edward VII, on 6 August. Led by Robert Falcon Scott, it sailed first to New Zealand, from where it...
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Robert Falcon Scott.(explorer who died returning from South Pole in 1912)(Brief Article)
Magazine article from: U.S. News & World Report; 11/22/1999; 452 words
; When the expedition led by Robert Falcon Scott reached the South Pole in January...planted. Having lost the race, Scott confided to his diary that "All...mile odyssey. History blamed Scott. But last week researchers from...
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Wretched weather sealed explorer's fate.(Robert Falcon Scott)
Magazine article from: Science News; 1/1/2000; ; 585 words
; ...their cold-hearted appraisals of Robert Falcon Scott, who lost the race to the South...Although scholars have often blamed Scott's poor planning, the explorer...Colo., and Stearns compared Scott's measurements--recovered...
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A First Rate Tragedy: Robert Falcon Scott and the Race to the South Pole
Magazine article from: Northeastern Naturalist; 1/1/1999; ; 297 words
; A First Rate Tragedy: Robert Falcon Scott and the Race to the South Pole...odds. Presents fine insights in Scott's strength of character and how...events and coincidences compelled Scott and his four companions to attempt...
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Morgan's excellent adventure. (fictional character Morgan Lamont retraces Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott's 1910 trip to the South Pole)
Magazine article from: Insight on the News; 3/20/1995; ; 514 words
; ...not think I can write more. R. Scott. Last entry. For God's sake...frozen fingers of British explorer Robert Falcon Scott, who in 1910 embarked on an 1...mile odyssey to the South Pole. Scott and the other members of the Terra...
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Nearly a century ago, Robert Falcon Scott and Roald Amundsen set off on separate expeditions to the South Pole.
Newspaper article from: Evening Herald (Dublin, Republic of Ireland); 10/23/2008; 626 words
; ...pollock ready for 'polar plod' Nearly a century ago, Robert Falcon Scott and Roald Amundsen set off on separate expeditions to...and found his way safely back to his native Norway. Scott made it on January 17, 1912, saw the Norwegian flag...
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Robert Falcon Scott
Encyclopedia entry from: Encyclopedia of World Biography
Robert Falcon Scott The English naval officer and polar explorer Robert Falcon Scott (1868-1912) made monumental scientific findings in Antarctica, and his geographical discoveries were extensive. He failed in his attempt to be the first to...
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Scott, Robert Falcon
Book article from: The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea
Scott, Robert Falcon (1868–1912), British naval...Investigations, was equipped for this task. Scott was promoted commander and the expedition...journeys were made. On one of these Scott, accompanied by Dr E. A. Wilson and...
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Scott, Sir Robert Falcon
Book article from: The Oxford Companion to British History
Scott, Sir Robert Falcon (1868–1912). Scott had entered the navy as a boy in 1880 and by 1897 was a...exploratory work in the Ross Sea and Victoria Land region. Scott himself, with Shackleton , made a sledge journey to beyond...
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The Maltese Falcon
Dictionary entry from: International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers
THE MALTESE FALCON USA, 1941 Director...Garretson; art director: Robert Haas; music: Adolph...York, 1966. Benayoun, Robert, John Huston, Paris...London, 1972. Sklar, Robert, Movie-Made America...Munich, 1985. Hammen, Scott, John Huston, Boston...
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Scott, Kathleen
Book article from: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists
Scott, Kathleen (1878–1947). British portrait sculptor...Slade School and in Paris under Rodin . In 1908 she married Captain Robert Falcon Scott (Scott of the Antarctic), who died on his return from the South Pole in...
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