About: Protologism

Protologism is a term coined in 2003 by the American literary theorist Mikhail Epstein in reference to a word coined, by an individual or a small group, that has not yet been published independently of the coiner(s). The word may be proposed, may be extremely new, or may not be established outside a very limited group of people. A protologism becomes a neologism as soon as it appears in published press, on a website, or in a book, independently of the coiner. A word whose developmental stage is between that of a protologism (freshly coined) and a neologism (a new word) is a prelogism.