Definition:
A word coined or used for a special occasion. See also:
Etymology:
From Middle English, "for the once"Examples and Observations:
- "A nonce word is one coined 'for the nonce'--made up for one occasion and not likely to be encountered again. When Lewis Carroll coined it, frabjous was a nonce word. Neologisms are much the same thing, brand-new words or brand-new meanings for existing words, coined for a specific purpose. Analogy, especially with familiar words or parts of speech, often guides the coiner, and occasionally these words will enter the standard vocabulary."
(Kenneth G. Wilson, The Columbia Guide to Standard American English, Columbia University Press, 1993) - "Vegan, too, has its offshoot: a freegan is an anticonsumerist who eats only what others throw away. Unlike a dumpster diver, a freegan (hard g) limits his scrounging to edibles. I believe this term is too close to euphemisms for copulation to be more than a nonce word."
(William Safire, "Vegan," The New York Times, January 30, 2005) - "Sometimes 'nonce-formation' is restricted to linguistically irrelevant, quirky stylistic 'novelties'; sometimes it is seen as fully representative of the system of word-formation defining 'possible words.'"
(Pavol Štekauer and Rochelle Lieber, Handbook of Word-Formation, Springer, 2005) - "Ken Dodd, a very popular comedian from Liverpool, specialized in the use of words such as titilifarious (a blend of 'titillating' and 'hilarious'?) and plumtuous (a blend of 'plump' and 'sumptuous'?). Such usage may be intended to satirize the 'long words' of pompous sounding 'gobbledygook.'"
(Richard Alexander, Aspects of Verbal Humour in English, Gunter Narr Verlag, 1997)
Also Known As: stunt word
