Néologisme

Néologisme is a term used in linguistics to refer to a newly coined word or expression, or a new sense of an existing word, introduced into a language. It can arise from technological invention, social change, or contact with other languages, and may enter everyday speech or specialized registers.

The word néologisme derives from néologie with the suffix -isme; in English, the equivalent term is neologism, from Greek neos 'new' and logos 'word'.

Neologisms originate through coinage (invented words), semantic extension (new meanings for existing words), calques, or borrowings. Common mechanisms include affixation, compounding, clipping, back-formation, and semantic shift. Examples include English terms such as blog, selfie, and hashtag, and French examples such as numérisation and courriel.

The adoption of neologisms follows a life cycle: some remain restricted to particular domains or groups, others gain traction in public discourse and dictionaries. Their survival depends on usefulness, ease of use, media exposure, and sociolinguistic factors.

In linguistic theory, néologismes are discussed in debates between prescriptive and descriptive approaches to language change, and they illustrate how languages evolve through innovation, borrowing, and reanalysis.