Dictionary

paleologism en · NOUN

Etymology

From paleo- + -logism, from Ancient Greek: παλαιός (palaiós, “old”) in combination with λόγος (lógos, “word”).

Meanings

1. A word or phrase that was coined in the distant past, often now obscured or offensive, or if recently used: possibly having a definition or implication different from that of any earlier usage.
   • Levinas seems to be offering new words or newly burnished words for old, those apparent semantic neologisms are more like pre-semantic paleologisms. 1995, John Llewelyn, Emmanuel Levinas: The Genealogy of Ethics, →ISBN, page 163:
   • 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." 2006, Philippe Roger as, translated by Sharon Bowman, The American Enemy: The History of French Anti-Americanism, →ISBN, page 252:
   • 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. 1964, Charles William Wahl, New Dimensions in Psychosomatic Medicine, page 41:
2. An obsolete term.

Forms

Antonyms

neologism

Relateds

paleologist

Translations (7)

nl paleologisme (phrase that was coined in the past and now obsolete) · da paleologisme (phrase that was coined in the past and now obsolete) · ja 死語 (phrase that was coined in the past and now obsolete) · de Paleologismus (phrase that was coined in the past and now obsolete) · ja 廃語 (phrase that was coined in the past and now obsolete) · el παλαιολογισμός (phrase that was coined in the past and now obsolete) · it paleologismo (phrase that was coined in the past and now obsolete)