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I have recently submitted a scientific paper in which I coined a new word. The paper will appear in October 2012. I did not find the word in O.E.D. or other sources. But when I use it with friends who are not even in my field, they immediately understand it and realize it's usefulness after minimal explanation of its intended meaning.
Can someone suggest a good place where newly proposed words can be submitted? I don't think my single publication will meet the O.E.D. standards of appearing in print over time or in sources with prestige. Thanks in advance for your thoughts and I will reveal the word soon either way.
Even without any experience with this issue I am 99% sure that wide usage always precedes source attribution, if the latter ever comes at all, and decades after. Commercial names (Xerox, Google…) obviously are under claimed authorship the day they are born, but that doesn't count as source attribution of a word of the vocabulary, because most of them will never become one.
Thanks for your thought. I am still interested in an answer that I can use.
I have heard of dictionary contests or open requests for a neologism by established publishers that may or may not stand the test of wide-spread use. That would be one way to establish authorship.
There are words in dictionaries that are not now and have never been in wide usage as vocabulary. But for good reasons they are included. Some words are published in a scholarly text and would only be used in a specialized field.
My favorite word of that kind is "supervenience", or in Spanish superveniencia. It was rarely used but in philosophy and other research.
Any one else?
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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