Re-Virginification - what is it all about?

Like my new word? Cool, isn't it. I was chatting with a friend tonight and we were talking about characters who have long dry spells. Of the intimate kind.

This led me to think about something that writers do on a regular basis. We invent words. We i

nvent worlds and scenarios that lead to these new ideas. (Because, of course, that is what we do!) Among my own is Barsha! Sounds like a curse word, right? And you'd be right in thinking that. It's gutteral and short. That word took 8 hours to filter through my brain though. Sometimes the process is instant and yet for others the right word may take hours, days or even weeks to hit upon.

The whole concept of authors inventing words has a long and illustrious history. Shakespeare is one of the most well known made up words that we use today:

• Bedroom,
• Faint-Hearted,
• Advertising,
• Bedazzled,
• assassination
• moonbeam,
• puke,
• submerged

Did some of those surprise you? Yes, I was surprised too. But even more so to realise that the term Neologism is the term given to the making up of words. According to wikipedia:

A neologism niːˈɒlədʒɪzəm/; from Greek νέο- (néo-), meaning "new", and λόγος (lógos),

• meaning "speech, utterance") is a newly coined term, word, or phrase, that may be in the process of entering common use, but has not yet been accepted into mainstream language. Neologisms are often directly attributable to a specific person, publication, period, or event. Neolexia (Greek: a "new word", or the act of creating a new word) is a fully equivalent term.

The term, neologism is first attested in English in 1772, borrowed from French néologisme (1734). ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neologism)

There is also a roll call of authors who have made up the most words:

According to Gavin Alexander, lecturer in English at Cambridge university and fellow of Milton's alma mater, Christ's College, who has trawled the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) for evidence, Milton is responsible for introducing some 630 words to the English language, making him the country's greatest neologist, ahead of Ben Jonson with 558, John Donne with 342 and Shakespeare with 229. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/jan/28/britishidentity.johncrace)

Yes, authors play a very large part in the evolution of language.

But, back to my term, Re-Virginification: it is the term for a long term spell ( in this case 2000 years) of abstinence. Works for me, anyway.

So, the next time you see a made up word in a book, remember that the author walks in the footsteps of some of the greatest.