coinage

Inherited from Middle English coynage, from Old French coignage, from coignier.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɔɪnɪd͡ʒ/

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• Rhymes: -ɔɪnɪdʒ

coinage (countable and uncountable, plural coinages)

1. The process of coining money.
2. (uncountable) Coins taken collectively; currency.
   • 1907, Ronald M. Burrows, The Discoveries In Crete, page 15:

     The Minoan age had not only an elaborate system of weights, but the first beginnings of a coinage.

3. (uncountable, lexicography) The creation of new words, neologizing.
   • 2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide‎, page 13:

     Caution needs to be exercised in regards to claims of coinage as the data contained a number of examples of writers professing the invention of a term that had actually been in existence for many years.

4. (countable, lexicography) Something which has been made or invented, especially a coined word; a neologism.
   • 1903, Edward E. Hale, Jr., “Ideas on Rhetoric in the Sixteenth Century”, in Publications of the Modern Language Association of America‎, volume XVIII, number 3, Modern Language Association of America, →ISSN, →OCLC, pages 441–442:

     As for Nash his chief aim seems to have been to vilify ; he by no means troubled himself about consistency. In Christ’s Tears over Jerusalem we find more strange expressious than he could have got out of all Harvey’s works, of which the following may serve as samples : callichrimate, Works, IV, 51 ; investurings, 72; sacrificatory, 76; delinquishment, 78; succoursuers, 116 ; intercessionate, 156 ; deplorement, 30. There are also a great number of derivatives in -ize, which are worth particular mention, e. g., unmortalize, 70 ; carionized, 75 ; oblivionize, 79 ; anatomize, 109 ; and many others. Of these some were in good use at the time, but others are obviously new coinages. There was some comment upon these particular derivatives on the appearance of the first edition of Christ’s Tears over Jerusalem, and in the second edition Nash commented upon the matter.

   • 2021, Thomas Kullmann and Dirk Siepmann, Tolkien as a Literary Artist: Exploring Rhetoric, Language and Style in The Lord of the Rings, Palgrave-Macmillan 2021

     Most importantly perhaps, it is evident that the impression of archaicity which any reader will experience on reading The Lord of the Rings is partly due to three simple lexical causes: the “overuse” of words borrowed from nineteenth-century fiction (e.g. yonder, journey [v], topmost), the avoidance of words associated with the modern world and the comparatively dense use of new coinages, unusual grammatical patterns, rare or obsolescent words.

5. The process of creating something new.
   • 1826, [Mary Shelley], The Last Man. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC:

     The head will serve for my new coinage, and be an omen to all dutiful subjects of my future success.

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