English

Etymology

Coined by Mikhail Epstein (and adopted by the Wiktionary community) from Greek protos, first + Greek logos, word, by analogy with prototype and neologism.

Noun

protologism

1. A newly-created word given a definition in the hope that it will be used in that sense.
2. (Wiktionary jargon) A recently-created word in narrow use but not yet in general use.

Note

Please do not create articles for protologisms you would like to see in use. Instead, please add them to Wiktionary:List of protologisms. In this context the first definition (newly-created in hopes of use) is relevant. Wiktionary routinely allows terms with only a few recorded usages, so long as these are independent (see Wiktionary:Criteria for inclusion for more detail).

See Also

• Wiktionary:List of protologisms for a topical listing.
• Category:Protologism for an alphabetical listing of protologisms for which full articles erroneously exist.