Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A word coined and used only for the nonce, or for the particular occasion. Nonce-words, suggested by the context or arising out of momentary caprice, are numerous in English. They are usually indicated as such by the context. Some are admitted into this dictionary for historical or literary reasons, but most of them require or deserve no serious notice.
Examples
“The proper basis for comparison is the trajectory that the American economy was following when he took office, which is summed up by the nonce-word “stagflation”.”
“State-of-the-art anything died from overuse, and world-class is out of the competition, falling back into the nonce-word category.”
Simon & Schuster: The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time
“The adjective is a nonce-sense, summerly elsewhere meaning 'such as one expects in summer'; the noun is a nonce-word.”
“Though aggress is in the dictionary, every one will feel that it is rare enough to be practically a neologism, and here a nonce-word.”
“A 'nonce-word' (and the use might be extended to 'nonce-phrase' and 'nonce-sense'the latter not necessarily, though it may be sometimes, equivalent to nonsense) is one that is constructed to serve a need of the moment.”
“Though he prefers to use terms like "energy grid" rather than the current nonce-word "green," he proposes to deal with problems of industry and business from the standpoint of reducing costs and respecting the reality of "finite resources.”
“Within a sesquifortnight (nonce-word, invented for this nonce), Mr. Crawford received an equally courteous reply from Oxford, over the signature of John Simpson, Co-Editor, Oxford English Dictionary.”
“Other of Caxton's loanwords have not fared so well: for example, exsidion ` extirpation '(a nonce-word), exercite ` army,' magistration”
“‘uprist’ — not by any means a nonce-word, but a genuine”
“‘uprest’ (“Revolt of Islam”, 3 21 5), which has been described as a nonce-word deliberately coined by Shelley ‘on no better warrant than the exigency of the rhyme.’”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘nonce-word’.
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Wordnik Challenge
A place to catalogue Wordnik Challenges. Defining words, making games, eliciting trivia, etc.
mibble, siddle, mathelode, oedden, frell, pthalo, bloomern, yablon, giznank, phethera, humpidorsus, xerolac and 85 more...
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miscellanea
antimacassar, snootful, sessile, glagolitic, marrowsky, farrago, keel, calumny, rheum, talisman, tally, awry and 508 more...
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2008 Wordlist
Hopefully, I'll be using this site for more than one year. It will be fun then to look back and see what new words I found worthy of notice in any given year.
All words spotted in 2008...longanimity, permalancer, breeder, biodegradable, handicapable, gender-neutral, translator, interpreter, translation, interpreting, kleptocracy, fanfiction and 1598 more...
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Unanswered
I've asked questions in comments on various words. This list points to those that remain unanswered. See Answered for ones that have been resolved.
amu, protuberating, orangest, plethora, strengthlessness, nonce-word
Tweets
Looking for tweets for nonce-word.
sarra That's the one I spotted, too… then I had to give up. Dec 3, 2008
mollusque The least nonce among the first 200 is buttless. Dec 3, 2008
mollusque Thanks, sarra! I'd searched "nonce-word" and found only 30 items. "Nonce-wd" returns 3130! Dec 3, 2008
sarra *has a look*
Good grief, the OED full text results for "nonce-wd" are an utter joy. I recommend a look yourselves. Dec 3, 2008
mollusque I wonder what word that the OED labels as a nonce-word has been most widely adopted. Dec 3, 2008
sionnach I think astuteb may be on to something. Dec 2, 2008
astuteb I personally suspect this was made up by the OED editors because they were bored and because they could get away with it.
I mean, who's a bigger authority that can call them on it? Dec 2, 2008
whichbe A word occurring, used, or made only once or for a special occasion. May 12, 2008