Posted on

Coinage is Not Small Change

Words

“Neo” from the Greek is new.

“Logos” from the Greek is word.

Put them together and what do you get?

neologism

A new word.

So what better place to end our month of celebrating words. Yes, that’s right, we made up words… such fun!

I began the lesson introducing the group to three suffixes and some common examples:

» cosm
[From Greek kosmos, order, universe.]
Universe; world
microcosm, macrocosm

» esque
[F., fr. It. -isco. Cf. –ish.]
An adjective suffix indicating manner or style
Arabesque, Romanesque

» ism
[Greek -ismos, -isma noun suffix]
A suffix used to form action nouns from verbs, distinctive doctrine, system, or theory
skepticism, truism

…and then I set them free. Here are some of my favorites:

appleism                       
buttonism                      

TVism                                  

s-e-e-ism                       

explosionism                       

snickerism           

pencilesque
tablesque
windesque
awesomesque
wafflesque
bubblesque

ballooncosm
bordomcosm
battlecosm
bouncehousecosm
writercosm
lollycosm 

Lewis Caroll had the right idea. Words are Jabberwocky.

Count the neologisms.

– Kim