How the Internet is Changing Neologisms

I've always been a pretty big fan of neologisms, aka new words.  My favorite section of the Atlantic Monthly (back when I subscribed) was  the "Word Fugitives" section, where people would write in asking if anyone could come up with a new word, to describe a given situation or thing that heretofore required several words.  The editor of that section even has an entire book about these neologisms (from the description):

Despite the many thousands of dictionary words at our disposal, our language can be dismayingly inadequate. How many times have you searched for a word that means just what you want it to but failed to find anything suitable anywhere? Most of us, it turns out, lead lives rife with experiences, people, and things that have no names.

At least, they lacked names until now. Word Fugitives comes to the rescue, supplying hundreds of inspired words coined or redefined to meet everyday needs. For instance, wouldn't it be handy to have a word for the momentary confusion people experience when they hear a cell phone ringing and wonder whether it's theirs? (How about fauxcellarm, phonundrum, or pandephonium?)

Or what about a word for offspring who are adults? (Try unchildren or offsprung.) Or a word for the irrational fear when you're throwing a party that no one will show up? (That might be guestlessness, empty-fest syndrome, or fete-alism.)

Now, not to beat my own drum, but I recently came up with what I thought was a pretty good neologism where I do my professional writing: vapormillionaire.  It's this bubble's version of a paper millionaire.  In 1999, there were plenty of people who were millionaires on paper, right after their company went public.  Now, nobody goes public any more, they just hold out for a buyout of their company.  And until the company is actually bought out, for untold millions, they're just vapormillionaires.  Not only does it rhyme (which is a hallmark of many good neologisms), but the use of the prefix 'vapor', is common in tech parlance; see: vaporware.  Even Valleywag, the arbiter of clever, described the term as linguistically adept.

But beyond this particular instance, it's clear that the internet is changing the fundamentals of neologism.  My mother, for example, claims to have invented the word clapter, a word so good, it sounds like it should be real.  But unfortunately, she didn't have a blog 30 years ago, and so she's certainly not the only person tho claims it as their own.  Even the venerable Urban Dictionary has an entry for clapter, which it defines simply as meaning applause, though some would argue that it's applause plus laughter, like after a comedian tells a particularly biting joke.  Now and in the future, there'll be little question as to the lineage of language.  If you come up with a new word, it's easy to record it somewhere.  Even if you don't have a blog, you can submit it to Langmaker, a wiki-based dictionary of neologisms.  A new word can be quickly timestamped, and later Googled to verify the owner and the moment of its inception.  Oh, and let's not even get into domain registration.  If my mother had invented the word clapter today, she could have bought clapter.com and loaded it with adsense, so as to monetize her linguistic creation.  Unfortunately, the name's been taken (though clapter.info is still available!).  And yes, at the moment, somebody is running ads on clapter.com.

Now, while vapormillionaire and clapter may not actually have much monetary value, some words can give rise to a whole career and concept.  Take the Wired magazine writer to came up with the term Crowdsourcing.  First it was an article, about the use of the internet to farm out labor to the untold masses on the cheap.  Then he launched a blog about the subject, and it'll be shocking if he doesn't try to turn it into a book.  If you Google 'crowdsourcing', it's clear the word originates with him.  Heh, just noticed he has a blog entry all about neologisms playing off the word crowdsourcing.  Neologisms meet network effects; yet another way the internet is changing the game. 

Of course, neologisms and crowdsourcing have always gone hand in hand; the "Word Fugitives" column, mentioned at the beginning of this piece, was an analogue version of crowdsourcing, as people would send in their requests for new words, and then the editor of the column would solicit ideas from Atlantic Monthly readers.  The difference is that the Atlantic Monthly only came out once a month, and only the best requests would make it into the column.  Now, this can happen in real time, and we get the full long tail (itself a presque-neologism) of requests and responses, completely decentralized, without the need for an editor.

In sum, it's a great time to be a neologian (unfortunately,  neologian doesn't appear to be a neologism, though the usage appears to be really different, so perhaps it can be an honorary one.  Wanted: word to describe totally new definition for an existing word!).  The proliferation of new technology alone makes for fertile territory, as do the attendant cultural changes.  And be sure to register anything you come up with before you go writing it places.  It could be worth a lot of money.

Can I consider myself a vapormillionaire, while I speculate on the value of vapormillionaire.com?

Comments

[Jeff Howe]

Having some scant claim to the term, I'd just like to say that as far as neologisms go, "neologian" is one of the best, evoking as it does, both linguistics and religion at once. Great post.

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