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Neologisms: what makes a new word sticky?

Posted on September 18, 2013October 25, 2019 by admin

What does it take to invent a word that takes root in the American English language–at least for a while? Ralph Keyes suggests that necessity (new things demand new names) and, on the part of the coiner, not trying too hard, have often been a successful recipe. Read Keyes’ tour of American neologisms here: Is There a Word for That? in The American Scholar.

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