coining

Pluralcoinings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of coin.

   The author has a habit of coining vivid terms for emotions we all recognize.

   Coining a memorable brand name took the marketing team weeks of work.

   Note

   The -ing form does double duty. In "she is coining a phrase" it is a verb in progress, and in "coining is slow work" it names the act itself. Behind it stand three uses of coin: minting metal into money, inventing a word, and making money quickly. Once it takes a plural, coinings, it has crossed into the noun for an invented word.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A word or phrase that someone has newly invented.

   Shakespeare gave English many coinings that remain in everyday use.

   The slang dictionary traces each new coining back to its first recorded appearance.

   Similarneologism, coinage

   Note

   Linguists can give the term a narrow edge. Kristin Denham and Anne Lobeck (2009) reserve "true coinings" for completely new words, which are rare beside words built by other formation processes. Looser usage counts any new word, as Hugh Blair did in 1783 when he set coining beside "new-compounding" words. Coinage and neologism cover the same ground, and all three can be counted.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   A Southeast Asian alternative therapy in which a coin is rubbed firmly over a person's oiled skin.

   Many families in the region still rely on coining when someone catches a cold.

   The doctor noticed reddish marks on the patient's back left by coining.

   Note

   Here the word names a practice, so it takes no plural. You speak of coining, never of "a coining." That keeps it apart from the noun for an invented word, where coinings is ordinary. The same treatment also goes by gua sha and kerokan, and those names are useful to know when reading about it.

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