Coined

Coined is the past tense and past participle of the verb coin, meaning to invent a new word, phrase, or name. In linguistics and lexicography, to coin a term is to introduce a novel expression into a language, often by blending existing elements or reassigning a familiar word to a new sense.

Etymology: The expression derives from coinage in minting coins; the metaphor emphasizes stamping something new into circulation. The figurative sense appears in early modern English and has since become common in discussions of language change, marketing, and culture, where new terms are treated as artifacts newly introduced to a social audience.

Notable examples include cyberspace (coined to describe the networked realm), blog (short for "web log"), meme (a unit of cultural transmission), robot (from Karel Čapek's play R.U.R. in 1920), quark (Murray Gell-Mann, 1964), and selfie (early 2000s). These illustrate how coined terms can gain traction through media, technology, and broad social use.

Impact: Coined terms may become mainstream or remain niche. Dictionaries track coinages and sometimes adapt definitions or spellings as usage evolves. The rise of mass media and online communication has accelerated the rate at which new terms are coined and circulated.

See also: Neologism, Etymology, Lexicography.