Neologisms

In the following article called I neologismi, I will talk about these new words, and I will explain to you the essential thing to make them enter into the Italian dictionaries. In contrast with my other articles, in which I explain something difficult, or I give little tips to improve your Italian skills and your fluency, today will focus on the neologisms, a super interesting topic to me, and hopefully, you will find it interesting too.

According to the Treccani dictionary, a neologism is a new word or locution, recently introduced in the language. This term is formed by the words νέος = neos (new) and λόγος = logos (speech).

How are neologisms born?

Why are we always faced with new words? Simple, because we need them. They come from the need to name things or situations that did not exist before. This phenomenon is highlighted by changes in our lifestyles, technological advancements, the spread of social media.

Be careful though! The fact that a new term has been coined does not guarantee its affirmation. In fact, as the Accademia della Crusca wrote in an article, there have been many attempts to bring new terms into everyday life, especially by advertising. But in the vast majority of cases, these attempts have failed. This is the case, for example, of the adjectives, comodosa and risparmiosa, used to describe a car, or of semplogica and emotica, respectively resulting from the union of simple and logical and exciting and practical. New words that needless to say, no longer remember anyone and that probably if you listen to them, they would make you laugh!

The affirmation of neologisms.

The essential feature that allows a neologism to affirm itself and be “promoted”, so much so that it becomes part of the dictionary of the Italian language, is the frequency of use. Therefore, institutes, scholars, and experts don’t decree which word has the right to enter the vocabularies. It is how much a given term is widespread, penetrated into the population, accepted, and used to make a difference.

Conclusion

Every day, new terms are coined, and others fall into disuse. This is a completely natural process, which can not be forced by anyone. In fact, the language, as I already said in my previous article, is one of the freest things that exist. It evolves and changes naturally with no following any established rule. This is the beauty and the uniqueness of each language. There is nothing that you can set in advance, but everything is in constant evolution.

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