Protologism
//pɹəʊˈtɒləˌdʒɪzm// noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A newly coined word or phrase defined in the hope that it will become common; a recently created term possibly in narrow use but not yet acknowledged. neologism
"This word is so new-fangled that it hasn't yet been accepted as part of the language—which makes it not a "neologism" but a "protologism.""
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"This word is so new-fangled that it hasn't yet been accepted as part of the language—which makes it not a "neologism" but a "protologism.""
Etymology
Coined by Mikhail Epstein in 2003, from Ancient Greek πρῶτος (prôtos, “first”) + Ancient Greek λόγος (lógos, “word”) + -ism, by analogy with prototype and neologism.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.