Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A word occurring, invented, or used just for a particular occasion; for example, the word mileconsuming in
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun lexicography A word invented for the occasion.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a word with a special meaning used for a special occasion
Etymologies
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From for the nonce, and word.
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Examples
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reesetee commented on the word nonce word
A word occurring, invented, or used just for a particular occasion (although some have gone on to lead rather long lives).
September 28, 2007
Jesterpatch commented on the word nonce word
I put verbal inventions into my two blogs whenever inspiration comes noncing. In the family blog, I described my new hobby of piling rocks on rocks into animal and human forms by instantiating the term "gerp":
"Quaker Hill's rocky terrain became fertile soil (so to speak) for my current hobby, which could aptly be called, "rockery." But starting around 1835, the word began answering to the definition, "rock garden," and I don't do rock gardens. So I created a nonce word for the craft: " Gravity-enabled Rock Placements," which, as an acronym, struts into the upper case to become GERPs, and then, sans pomp, settles down to earth into the lower-case to become the neologism "gerps"
Addenda: multiple gerps in close proximity are known in the informal as "gerp groups" and in the formal as "rockcolonies."
September 29, 2007
Jesterpatch commented on the word nonce word
I put verbal inventions into my two blogs whenever inspiration comes noncing. In the family blog, I described my new hobby of piling rocks on rocks into animal and human forms by instantiating the term "gerp":
"Quaker Hill's rocky terrain became fertile soil (so to speak) for my current hobby, which could aptly be called, "Rockery." But starting around 1835, the word began answering to the definition, "rock garden," and I don't do rock gardens. So I created a nonce word for the craft: " Gravity-enabled Rock Placements," which, as an acronym, struts into the upper case to become GERPs, and then, sans pomp, settles down to earth into the lower-case to become the neologism "gerps"
Addenda: multiple gerps in close proximity are known in the informal as "gerp groups" and in the formal as "rockcolonies."
September 29, 2007