Why We Sometimes Have to Invent New Words
Even though the English lexicon includes over half a million words, sometimes we need to make up a new one, just for a specific usage. These unique words are called nonce words. “Nonce” is from the Middle English “nanes,” created through the misdivision (also known as rebracketing) of two words:
“then anes,” meaning “for one purpose.”As an adjective, “nonce” did not appear in print until the 1884 publication of what became the Oxford English Dictionary. Its editor, James Murray, coined the term “nonce-word” for “words apparently employed for the nonce” (for one purpose). Many words that fit that description existed...
