: Re: Coining words - when and how? Writing an answer to another question, I stumbled upon a quote from The Hobbit: Bilbo rushed along the passage, very angry, and altogether bewildered and bewuthered

@LarsenBagley300

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A new concept - a new word
This also expands to more than a single word. But there are multiple variants of new concepts.

Concepts that are a part of setting.

These are pretty simple: the setting is not our Earth, therefore evolution gone another way there. Or it can be far future. Or something else. Anyway, there will be plants and beings not occuring in our life. They need their own terms.
But this is not limited by objects. This can include verbs and adjectives. Maybe the beings in the setting are capable of something we are not? These things need new terms as well.
How to create them? Depends on the setting. But it probably is talent and experience.

Concepts that have philosophical meaning.

These ones are more interesting. They are not necessarily a part of setting. Maybe the author thinks they should become the part of our life. In the novel I am writing I use the term "bed-close friendship" which I never heard of before, therefore I guess it counts as creating a new term. It has meaning: it is an alternative to relationships.
How? These ones should probably be based on real words. Therefore larger lexicon helps. And maybe eureka.
Refreshing old concepts
It can also be the case when the concept is laready recognized in this world but for some reason it happened to be unpopular. Maybe society even has negative connotations regarding it without even knowing what it denotes. In this case it might be helpful to introduce a new name for it.
Translation
It can be the case when a word in another language has no alternative on yours. Often it makes sense to not translate it. But there are cases when you should translate. Maybe for a rhyme. Maybe for some other reason.
Playing with words
Sometimes you just might want to have fun of words. Making puns, portmanteaus, etc. I am not writing my novel on English, but it has a word which on English means "copulations", and one English I'd like it to be translated "copulationships". Partially, just because I want to play with words. Partially, because it rhymes with word "relationships", which I make fun of.

There are many reasons and I'm not sure I covered all of them. But probably the most prominent ones. As long as there is a reason there is something you can tell to the editor. Will the editor accept it? Hard to say.

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