Neologisms in an Online Portal: The Dutch Neologismenwoordenboek (NW)

Every year thousands of neologisms, or new words, are coined. Most neologisms are compounds or derivations. Existing words used with a new meaning (e.g., English smart [slim in Dutch] 'appearing to have a degree of intelligence' [OED]), often used attributively before a machine or device) and new multiword units (urban gym) are also treated as neologisms. New loanwords are often considered neologisms as well: in Dutch many neologisms are borrowed from English, as with frosecco 'frozen prosecco' and the more familiar crowdsourcing and staycation, for example.

Not every neologism is widely used and the majority of new words will disappear. The more widely adopted or firmly rooted neologisms are often described in dictionaries, such as the Algemeen Nederlands Woordenboek (ANW), an online dictionary of present-day Dutch. Why are some new words adopted, while others are ignored? Is it necessary to register and describe neologisms that are likely to disappear, for example in a dictionary of neologisms? And what should a dictionary of neologisms look like?

In this article I present a pilot version of a new dictionary of Dutch neologisms. Firstly, I explain how neologisms are created in general and what Dutch neologisms look like. Secondly, I demonstrate why it is necessary to register and describe neologisms (including those that are not adopted in contemporary speech) in an online dictionary portal. Then I zoom in on Dutch and show how potential neologisms in Dutch can be detected with the aid of the computer tool Neoloog and through corpus analysis. Finally, I examine the lemma structure of a Dutch special-domain dictionary of neologisms, the Neologismenwoordenboek (NW) and discuss how it differs from the ANW in the way it describes neologisms.