Wiktionary:Neologisms
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This is a Wiktionary policy, guideline or common practices page. Specifically it is a policy think tank, working to develop a formal policy. |
| Policies – Entries: CFI - EL - NORM - NPOV - QUOTE - REDIR - DELETE. Languages: LT - AXX. Others: BLOCK - BOTS - VOTES. |
Generally speaking, a neologism is any word or phrase that has been newly coined. Many neologisms, specifically called protologisms, die without acknowledgement and are excluded by Wiktionary's criteria for inclusion. Some neologisms become diffused in certain specializations or areas of the population, and others end up becoming very widely known.
Within Wiktionary, a request for verification can be made to help determine whether a particular neologism meets the criteria for inclusion or is only a protologism that should be deleted. Some protologisms are nonetheless recorded in Wiktionary's appendix.
A more precise sense of neologism which has gained some support on Wiktionary is a word that
- a) is new and perceived as new, although there is no precise age cutoff for newness;
- b) has not yet been recognized as part of the standard language (often being written with scare quotes);
- c) is not slang, colloquial, very informal, or technical, and;
- d) is not merely derived from an already-existing term with no unexpected change in meaning, such as in the case of clippings, loanwords, and abbreviations.
A neologism that becomes part of the standard language should have the "neologism" label removed. A neologism that fails to become part of the standard language after an extended period of time but is not a protologism should be labeled nonstandard.
