coinage

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English coynage, from Old French coignage, from coignier.

noun

  1. The process of coining money.
  2. (uncountable) Coins taken collectively; currency.
  3. (uncountable, lexicography) The creation of new words, neologizing.
    Caution needs to be exercised in regards to claims of coinage as the data contained a number of examples of writers professing the invention of a term that had actually been in existence for many years. 2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide, page 13
  4. (countable, lexicography) Something which has been made or invented, especially a coined word; a neologism.
    Most importantly perhaps, it is evident that the impression of archaicity which any reader will experience on reading The Lord of the Rings is partly due to three simple lexical causes: the “overuse” of words borrowed from nineteenth-century fiction (e.g. yonder, journey [v], topmost), the avoidance of words associated with the modern world and the comparatively dense use of new coinages, unusual grammatical patterns, rare or obsolescent words. 2021, Thomas Kullmann and Dirk Siepmann, Tolkien as a Literary Artist: Exploring Rhetoric, Language and Style in The Lord of the Rings, Palgrave-Macmillan 2021
  5. The process of creating something new.

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