Protologism


Protologism is a term invented in the early 2000s by American literary theorist Mikhail Epstein to refer to a word coined by an individual or small group that has not yet been published somewhere independent from the coiner. The word may be proposed, extremely new or not established outside a very limited group of people. A protologism becomes a neologism as soon as it appears in published press, on a website or book independent from the coiner. A word whose development stage is between that of the protologism and neologism is a prelogism.

Overview

The word protologism describes one stage in the development of neologisms, at which a word is proposed, extremely new, or not established outside a very limited group of people. A protologism is coined to fill a gap in the language, with the hope of its becoming an accepted word. When it was created, the term protologism was autological; it was an example of the thing it describes. Epstein coined the term by combining the Greek words :
According to Epstein, every word in use started out as a protologism, subsequently became a neologism, and then gradually grew to be part of the language. There is no fixed rule determining when a protologism becomes a stable neologism. According to Kerry Maxwell, author of Brave New Words: