Paleologism
Alternative forms
Origin
- -logism, from Ancient Greek: παλαιός (palaios, "old") in combination with λόγος (logos, "word").
Full definition of paleologism
Noun
paleologism
(plural paleologisms)- Word or phrase that was coined in the distant past, often now obscured, or if recently used: possibly having a definition or implication different from that of any earlier usage.
- 1964, Charles William Wahl, New Dimensions in Psychosomatic Medicine http://books.google.com/books?ei=pYR2R4LBO4bosQPlrJWeBw, page 41:Another is the paleologism of pars pro toto in which a part of an organ or function can symbolize the whole organ or concept; eg, the stomach may be the locus of difficulty with a patient with a history of frustrated dependency needs because of its association with the process of being fed and loved by the mother.
- 1995, John Llewelyn, Emmanuel Levinas: The Genealogy of Ethics http://books.google.com/books?id=y5mmvpiKXxUC, ISBN 0415107296, page 163:Levinas seems to be offering new words or newly burnished words for old, those apparent semantic neologisms are more like pre-semantic paleologisms.
- 2006, Philippe Roger as translated by Sharon Bowman, The American Enemy: The History of French Anti-Americanism http://books.google.com/books?id=R8Z200sQYnoC, ISBN 0226723682, page 252:The word trust is in no way a neologism. On the contrary, it is a kind of paleologism, a primitive signifier, "a word from a barbarian time."
- An obsolete term.