pseudoneologism

English

Etymology

From pseudo- +‎ neologism.

Noun

pseudoneologism (plural pseudoneologisms)

  1. (linguistics) A word or expression that appears to be a neologism, but is actually either not genuinely new or is a pseudoform derived from existing linguistic elements.
    • 2003, Alan Singer, Aesthetic Reason: Artworks and the Deliberative Ethos, University Park, P.A.: The Pennsylvania State University Press, →ISBN, page 94:
      A veritable lexicon of pseudoneologisms serves as the most subtle currency of this "givenness of the wrong word" in Beckett's prose. Throughout the work, arcane diction such as "dimmen," "strangury," "collapsion," "scrute" abounds. By their juxtaposition with perfectly colloquial idioms, these words present the erroneous appearance of neologism.
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