ontin
n.— «But he also likes to come up with new words to describe cultural patterns, acknowledging that at breakfast he invented a new word—ontin, meaning the ostensible usage of something—which he has already used a few times to much bewilderment.» —“Brian Eno lights up Sydney Opera House for global warming” by Belinda Goldsmith in Sydney, Australia Reuters May 26, 2009. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
How do social media algorithms shape the way we communicate? A new book argues that the competition for clicks is changing the way we speak and write, from the so-called “YouTube accent” to the surprising evolution of the word preppy. Also: A...