History Main / Neologism

[[folder: Comic Books]]

[[folder: Fan Fiction]]
* Arguably, "Gothically"/"Goffically" and quite a few of the other words (usually verbs or adjectives) in the infamous MyImmortal.
* FanFic/ForbidenFruitTheTempationOfEdwardCullen gives us "plimpled". It's apparently a way of speaking, that can inexplicably be done "mutely".
* FanFic/LegolasByLaura: "and then Legolas was happy for somerising."

[[folder:Film]]

* ''Film/TheProducers'': "Creative accounting."
** in widespread use during the sale-and-leaseback frenzy of the late-1980s boom, a process which like so much accounting at the time, had the actual effect of converting equity into debt, to be serviced by future revenue streams already allocated to other purposes

* ''Franchise/StarWars'' gave us the droid, a shortened form of android even though it applies to all autonomous robotic creatures in the Star Wars universe, not just those that resemble humanoids.
* ''Main/MaryAndMax'''s Max indulges in this, going so far as to write a letter to the Oxford Dictionary suggesting some new additions, namely "Confuzzled" (confused/puzzled), "Snirt" (snow/dirt), and "Smushables" (groceries that were smushed at the bottom of the bag).

* ''WhoCensoredRogerRabbit'', the 1981 book by Gary Wolfe, (which was the basis for the movie ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'') introduced the word "Toon" as a name for a cartoon-type character.
** This is also a common synonym for one's avatar or character in various role-playing games.

[[folder: Newspaper Comics]]
* ''{{Peanuts}}'' famously coined the term "security blanket."
* ''TheFarSide:'' One cartoon featured a classroom of cavemen, with the professor pointing at a picture of a Stegosaur's tail spikes: "Now this end is called the thagomizer ... after the late Thag Simmons." After it was found out that no term had indeed been coined for the spikes, "thagomizer" has since semi-seriously entered paleontologists' lexicon. Seriously enough that it's appeared in ''Nature''.
* ''CalvinAndHobbes:'' Calvin, complaining about scientists' unimaginative naming, says that The Big Bang should have been called "The Horrendous Space Kablooie." Some physicists use that term now.
* ''{{Dilbert}}'' has coined terms like PointyHairedBoss for any clueless boss that has no real management skill.

[[/folder]]


[[folder:Television]]
* Creator/StephenColbert. While 'Truthiness' already had an archaic (different from the modern) definition, 'Wikiality' is a whole new word.
* In 1995, Conan O'Brien was looking for a word to [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar outwit the censors]]. He came up with the word "Crunk." Ice-T used the word several times during the broadcast. Nowadays, there's barely a rapper alive that doesn't have "crunk" in his vocabulary...and there's now even an [[CrunkCore entire genre of music]] named after it...
* As discussed on an episode of ''{{QI}}'', the sketch show ''Not the Nine O'Clock News'' once used "flange" as the collective noun for gorillas -- as in "a pride of lions," "a pod of dolphins," "a flange of gorillas." It was just a joke, [[CaptainObvious such as you might expect from a comedy show]], but apparently some people took it at face value and the term has been adopted by academics, but to refer to baboons. The collective noun for gorillas is congress.

* On ''Not Necessarily the News'', Rich Hall created a segment which encouraged viewers to write in examples. The segment was called "Sniglets," which was defined as "Words that should be in the dictionary but aren't." Some examples include

** Lactomangulation -- opening the "illegal" side (the one that says 'open other end') on a milk carton

** Flopcorn -- kernels of corn in a bag of popcorn that fail to pop. Interestingly enough, a maker of microwave popcorn used the term in a printed advertisement
*** There ''is'' a word for unpopped popcorn in the business. They're called "old maids".
** At least one of his made up words...{{Spork}} -- the half fork, half spoon one gets from Kentucky Fried Chicken... Has indeed been accepted into general usage.
* In {{Blackadder}}, Edmund torments Dr. Samuel Johnson by making up words such as "contrafibularities", "anaspeptic", "phrasmotic", and "interphrastically".
* ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'': The Internet term "spam" was derived from the infamous "SPAM" sketch.

[[folder: Video Games]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]

[[folder: Web Original]]

* Woot. Not as famous as Google, but it has found its way into a number of dictionaries. WOOT [[FunWithAcronyms purportedly stands for]] We Own the Other Team.
** Alternatively, it's a portmanteau of "Wow, loot!"
* If you need proof that TVTropesWillRuinYourVocabulary (and the vocabularies of everyone around you), "{{Narm}}" (for what is technically refered to as "bathos") and the verb "[[MagnificentBastard to xanatos]]" have already left their mark on the Internet.
* Much like the "flange of baboons" example above, [=RPGMP3=] is attempting to popularize "shower" as the collective term for a group of bastards.
** Perhaps after this exchange in an episode of ''FatherTed''?
-->'''Father Ted''': What was it he used to say about the needy? He had a term for them...
-->'''Father Dougal''': A shower of bastards.
** 'Shower' is common Irish slang.
* [[{{Twitter}} "Tweet."]] There's currently a battle of wills going on at the ''New York Times'' to decide whether to use it as a verb in stories referring to Twitter, or just go on saying that someone "said on their Twitter account" blah blah blah.
** Just as long as they don't use 'twat' for the past tense form. Unless they do it [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar intentionally]].
*** See also the question "how many tweets make a twat?" which only really works in British English....
** On the other hand, "Tweet" has an older meaning as an onomatopoeia for a weak chirping sound, so it's not exactly a new word.
* SMBCTheater presents: the Shitbag. Combination of shithead and douchebag.

*** Not even remotely attributable to SMBC - it's been British Slang for decades. It's shorthand for an insult: someone who is "a bag of shit" (interchangeable with "Scumbag").

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' has produced a number of neologisms which have come into varying degrees of common use. In particular, {{Retirony}} and PerfectlyCromulentWord are named for terms originating on the show, as well as the popular remark "Meh."
-->'''Jebediah Springfield''': A noble spirit [[http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/embiggen embiggens]] the smallest man.

*** Note that the Wiktionary link for "embiggens" dates the coinage at 1884: the Simpsons merely popularized it.
** ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''' use of "D'oh" wasn't new. It was a copy of James Finlayson's usage of the term. For those who don't recognise the name, Finlayson was a friend of Stan Laurel and frequent actor in Creator/LaurelAndHardy films -- usually as the moustachioed antagonist. He introduced both "D'oh" and the DoubleTake to comedy film.

-->'''Troy Hammerschmidt:''' Titan Maximum, say hello to Titan Megamum. The most advanced robot ever built and the perfect match for the most handsome pilot ever born.
-->'''Sasha Caylo:''' Titan Megamum? Megamum isn't even a word.
-->'''Troy Hammerschmidt:''' Neither is ''vaginacillin'', but that didn't stop you from using it as the title for your third album... or your fragrance line.

[[folder: Real Life]]

* SepterraCore. The title contains "Septerra" which is the name of the planet the game takes place on. However, "Septerra", while a made-up word, can be taken to mean "Seven Lands", which is FridgeBrilliance because the game contains exactly that.

Not to be confused with PersonalDictionary, which is pretending existing words mean something else.

* Agglutinative languages, such as Finnish, Turkish or Japanese, are really ''[[UpToEleven based]]'' on neologisms and neologization, On both languages, the basic linguistic corpus is very small, but new words are easily formed from existing words with various suffixes and derivations.
** The {{Newspeak}} failed spectacularly in the Finnish translation of George Orwell's NineteenEightyFour - the whole Finnish language is based on the same principles as the Newspeak would have been.

* ''{{Nethack}}'' uses the word "cornuthaum" for a wizard's pointed hat. The hat existed in media before, but the word was specifically made up for use in Nethack.

* The book ''Brain Droppings'' by GeorgeCarlin has a list of "Words and phrases we should have," including "pocketry = a garment's pockets," "firmth = firmness" and "unpark = drive away."

* ''Literature/TheMeaningOfLiff'', by DouglasAdams and John Lloyd, consists entirely of invented meanings for various place names. Entries include "Sheppey" (a distance roughly 7/8 of a mile, the closest distance at which sheep remain picturesque) and {{Zeerust}}.

* Creator/VanKootenEnDeBie: This Dutch comedic do inspired several words and expressions which are difficult to translate in English.

* James Fenmore Cooper is generally credited with either inventing or widely popularizing the name "Cora" in his novel ''TheLastOfTheMohicans.''

* TomPoes: This Dutch comic strip is well known for creating many neologisms.

* ''TheSimpsons'' has produced a number of neologisms which have come into varying degrees of common use. In particular, {{Retirony}} and PerfectlyCromulentWord are named for terms originating on the show, as well as the popular remark "Meh."

* StephenColbert. While 'Truthiness' already had an archaic (different from the modern) definition, 'Wikiality' is a whole new word.

* ''Main/MaryAndMax'''s Max indulges in this, going so far as to write a letter to the Oxford Dictionary suggesting some new additions.

* ''StarWars'' gave us the droid, a shortened form of android even though it applies to all autonomous robotic creatures in the Star Wars universe, not just those that resemble humanoids.

* The DresdenFiles has the eponymous Harry Dresden, resident [[TallDarkAndSnarky snarker]] and [[TheNicknamer coiner of silly names]]. "Chlorofiend" indeed... (Immediately subverted because nobody knew what a chlorofiend was, so he had to revert to plant monster.)

!!Examples

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

[[folder: Fan Fiction ]]

[[folder: Newspaper Comics ]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

[[folder: Web Original ]]

** Named after googol, which is also a neologism, and means 1.0 * 10^100, a one followed by a hundred zeroes and was invented by a 9 year old girl. TheOtherWiki has [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googol details]].

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* The Washington Post often holds a contest to create a new word by adding or removing a letter from an existing one. One of the winners: "Sarchasm" - the gap between someone being sarcastic and [[PoesLaw the listener or reader who doesn't get it.]]

* Know what "dord" means? Density is represented in science by D, or alternatively by d. This was submitted to the Oxford English Dictionary as, "D or d: a term used in science to mean density." Of course, someone misread it, and for decades "dord" was in the dictionary.

->''Kickassery is a real word! That was not just rhyme for rhyme's sake. You can look that up in the Dikinjiary. [[note]]If you can find it. And read black text on black paper.[[/note]]''
--> -- ''WebVideo/AskANinja''

* Creator/JRRTolkien and ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' established "dwarves" as the standard plural of "dwarf" in HighFantasy; Tolkien had a valid philological reason for wanting to change the accepted spelling ("dwarfs" is a bad plural formation). "Elves" was already the standard plural of "elf", but Tolkien ''did'' popularize the adjective form "elven" instead of the then-standard "elfin".

* Woot. Not as famous as Google, but it has found its way into a number of dictionaries. WOOT [[{{backronym}} purportedly stands for]] We Own the Other Team.