Neologism

Neologism (in psychiatry) is the invention of words that are given known meanings. Usually observed in childhood; however, when it occurs in adults, it may be a symptom of a mental illness, such as schizophrenia. Neologisms should be distinguished from paraphasia, in which well-known words are given new meanings.

Article: “Neologisms and the history of their origin”

In psychiatry, **neologism** is the process of inventing new words that have known meanings. In children, it usually appears before the age of six and is associated with the desire to communicate with peers and adapt to society. However, in adulthood, this phenomenon may be a consequence of schizophrenia. This term differs from paraphasis, which involves giving familiar words new meanings.

History of the origin of neologisms

Origin

The term “**neologism**” comes from the Greek words “neo” - “new” and “logos” - “word”, which means “new word”. It originated in the 1920s in linguistics to denote new words or changes in the meaning of existing words. Neologisms can be both single-component and multi-component words containing several lexical units. How do they arise?

Neologism is a phenomenon that can be called extremely widespread. Now we name a lot of words that people gave us. Sometimes, there are neologisms that are not even words, but only abbreviations. However, if we approach this issue relatively, a neologism can become the key to various phenomena, including the pathology of thinking.

What is a neologism anyway? These are inventions of new words, but important for a certain person. Moreover, it is important to know whether a given person uses these neologisms in general society or not. It is believed that absolutely any neologisms are a product of neurological diseases in children. But, in fact, this kind of disturbance can also occur in other forms of pathology of the brain or psyche. Most often, a number of phrases that were used in mental disorders, and which are only a “fragment” of memory, become neologisms.