Superior Person's Tuesday!

Neoterism n. That which is new, and especially the invention of new words, or a particular newly coined word (the latter being also known as a neologism). For example, when Sir Thomas Urquhart published his translation of Rabelais, he enriched the text by expanding a list of nine animal sounds to seventy-one, including the curking of quails, the nuzzling of camels, the smuttering of monkeys, the charming of beagles, the drintling of turkeys, the boing of buffaloes, the coniating of storks, the gueriating of apes, the crouting of cormonants.

The Oxford English Dictionary attributes over 500 neoterisms to William Shakespeare.

Each Tuesday, we’ll offer up a Superior Word for the edification of our Superior Readers, via the volumes of the inimitable Peter Bowler. You can purchase all or any of the four Superior Person’s Books of Words from the Godine website. Neoterism appears in the Third.