It's the Word of the Day podcast for March 22nd.
Today's word is neologism, spelled N-E-O-L-O-G-I-S-M.
Neologism is a noun.
It can refer either to a new word or expression or to a new meaning of an existing word.
Here's the word used in a sentence from Harper's.
Undertakers refashioned themselves as funeral directors over the span of a few decades in the early 20th century.
The new generation of morticians, another neologism meant to conjure expertise,
bought up shambling Victorian mansions in swish residential districts and invented a new form of comfort.
The English language is constantly picking up neologisms.
In recent decades, for example, social media has added a number of new terms to the language.
Finsta, Riz, Influencer, Meme,
and Doom Scroll are just a few examples of modern-day neologisms that have been integrated into American English.
The word neologism was itself a brand new coinage in the latter half of the 18th century,
when English speakers borrowed the French term néologisme,
meaning both the habit of forming new words and a newly formed word.
The French term, which comes from néologie,
meaning coining of new words, comprises familiar elements.
We recognize our own neo with various meanings relating to what is new as a neoclassical,
and lo-g-l-o-g-y meaning oral or written expression as in trilogy.
With your Word of the Day, I'm Peter Sokolowski.