We explain what a neologism is, how it is formed, what types there are, and examples. Also, we’ll explain sentences with neologisms and the difference between them and archaisms.
What is a neologism?
Neologisms are new words and expressions in a language that emerge to name recently created or developed elements. They can also be new meanings attributed to terms that already exist. For example: pixel, chip, byte.
Thus, when it is necessary to create a term to designate new objects, phenomena, or concepts, neologisms are used. For example, the word “audiobook” emerged to name a recently invented format consisting of a sound recording of the text of a book. You must read about Religion once.
The emergence of neologisms is a common process in all languages. A word may be considered a neologism for a certain period of time, but then becomes a term in common use in the language. For example, the word “television” entered Spanish some time ago to designate a new type of object, but is now commonly used by all speakers.
Neologisms can have different origins. For example, they can be foreign words (words borrowed from other languages) or terms that combine elements of the same language. They frequently originate in science, technology, journalism, economics, politics, and culture because these are fields in which innovations are constantly occurring. Maybe you should definitely read about Animals Classification once.
Types of Neologisms
There are two types of neologisms:
- Formal neologisms: These are constructed from existing words or grammatical elements through various processes, such as derivation, parasynthesis, and acronyms. For example: surfearse (surfing) was formed by adding the suffix -ear to the loanword surf.
- Semantic neologisms: These are created when an existing word in the language acquires new meanings. For example, the word mouse previously only referred to a type of rodent, but today it is also used to designate the element that moves the cursor on a computer.
How are neologisms formed?
Some of the most common mechanisms for creating neologisms are:
- Acronym: This occurs when an acronym that can be read as a word is incorporated into the language. For example, the neologism pyme (small and medium-sized enterprise) was formed by joining the initials of small and medium-sized enterprise (small and medium-sized enterprise).
- Metaphor: This occurs when the meaning of a word is modified to give it a new metaphorical meaning. For example: with the advent of the Internet, the term browser began to be used to refer to the program or application used to access different online sites.
- Derivation: This occurs when a prefix or suffix is added to a word or its root. For example, the neologism “multimarca” (multi-brand) was formed by adding the prefix “multi-” to the word “marca” (brand).
- Composition: This occurs when two or more words or their roots are joined together to form a new term. For example, the neologism “motonieve” (snowmobile) was formed by joining the words “moto” and “nieve” (snow).
- Parasynthesis: This occurs when a root and a suffix, or a prefix and a suffix, are added to a word at the same time. For example, “emlatar” (platar) was formed by adding the prefix “em-” and the suffix “ar” to the word “plato” (dish).
- Borrowing: This occurs when a foreign word is introduced into a language. These words often undergo spelling and pronunciation changes to adapt them to the rules of the target language. For example, the neologism “jaquear” (hack) is a word that comes from English (to hack).
- Shortening: This occurs when some letters are removed from a word. For example: the term “celue” is a shortened form of “celular.”
- Syntagmation: This occurs when words are combined to designate a new element. For example, the neologism “social network.”
Examples of Neologisms
Below is a list of examples of neologisms:
- Anti-wrinkle: A word formed by adding the prefix anti- to the word wrinkles.
- Firewall: A word formed by joining the terms corta- and -firewall, which originally designated a well or wall that prevents the passage of fire, and currently includes the meaning of a computer program that protects against virtual threats.
- Virus: A word that originally referred to a type of organism, but its meaning was expanded to designate a program used to damage digital information.
- Profile: A word that primarily refers to the parts of a person seen from the sides. Its meaning was later expanded to designate a person’s identity on a social network.
- Gugle: A verb that emerged to refer to searching for information on Google.
- Selfie: The name given to a photograph someone takes of themselves. It is a loanword from the English word selfie.
- Tweet: A word that designates each post on the social network formerly known as Twitter (now X). It comes from the English term “tweet.”
- Drone: A loanword that comes from the English word “drone” and designates a type of unmanned aircraft.
- Porfa: A word formed by combining and shortening the terms of the expression “please.”
- Wifi: A loanword that comes from the English acronym Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity).
Sentences with neologisms
Some examples of sentences with neologisms are:
- They chatted.
- I love this history podcast.
- María does pilates three times a week.
- Is she a trap singer?
- The modem is working fine.
- This app uses 3 megabytes.
- The car has airbags for all seats.
- Juan responded to the message with the smiley emoji.
- A millennial is a person born between 1980 and 2000.
- This meme is hilarious!
Neologisms and Archaisms
Archaisms are the opposite of neologisms; they are words or expressions that were once used but have now fallen into disuse in most contexts.
Often, these are terms that are still used in specific disciplines or places. Others have undergone changes in terms of their spelling, pronunciation, or meaning. For example, “facer” is an archaism that was replaced by the verb “hacer” (to do).
References
All the information we offer is supported by authoritative and up-to-date bibliographic sources, which ensure reliable content in line with our editorial principles.
- García Negroni, M. M. (2016). Writing Well in Spanish: Keys to Proofreading. Waldhuter.
- Royal Spanish Academy. (2023). Dictionary of the Spanish language. dle.rae.es
- Sánchez Manzanares, C. (Dir.). (2016). NEOMA. Dictionary of neologisms from current Spanish. Editum. um.es/neologismos
