nonce word
| a word coined and used only for a particular occasion. Compare neologism (def. 1). |
1880–85
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source
| nonce word n. A word occurring, invented, or used just for a particular occasion; for example, the word mileconsuming in "the wagon beginning to fall into its slow and mileconsuming clatter" (William Faulkner). |
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
nonce word
a word coined and used apparently to suit one particular occasion. Nonce words are sometimes used independently by different writers and speakers, but they are not adopted into general use. James Joyce employed many such words in Finnegans Wake (1939). In A Clockwork Orange (1962), the novelist Anthony Burgess created a large vocabulary of nonce words, a language he called nadsat. His protagonist, Alex, speaks and thinks in nadsat, which is a blend of Cockney slang and Russian. Examples of nadsat nonce words include the terms britva ("razor"), mounch ("snack"), and privodeet ("to lead somewhere"). Compare portmanteau word.
Learn more about nonce word with a free trial on Britannica.com.
Cite This Source
Copyright © 2009, Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.
