noncewords

Nonce words are words that are coined for a single occasion, often to convey a meaning or tone that existing words do not capture. The phrase for the nonce means “for the present occasion,” and advertisers or authors use nonce words to mark idiolect, humor, or experiment. Unlike broadly circulated neologisms, nonce words are not expected to become part of stable vocabulary, though some later gain permanence.

Authors, poets, journalists, and speakers create nonce words by blending, affixing, compounding, or repurposing existing morphemes. Notable examples include James Joyce's quark, introduced in Finnegans Wake and later used in physics; gobbledygook, a term coined by Maury Maverick in 1944 to describe bureaucratic language; and snollygosters, a term from 19th-century American political discourse.

Most nonce words disappear after the context, leaving little or no attestations. A subset, through repeated use, becomes generic neologisms or formalized terms, and are then studied as part of the lexicon; such words may be called lexicalized nonce words or simply neologisms.

Linguists study nonce words in corpora and literary analysis to understand word formation, creativity, and language change. They may categorize nonce words as pure nonce words (attested only in one source) or recurring nonce words (used in multiple contexts).