New Words Resolution: Brand Spankin' New: Words with Neo- and Nov-

Looking for some new words? Learn this list of terms based on neo-, a Greek prefix meaning "new," and novare, Latin for "to make new."
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. innovative
    introducing new ideas or creative methods
    NFL initiatives in its 100th season that ranged from volunteerism to fundraising to salutes to the military to the innovative My Cleats My Cause campaign. Washington Times (Dec 27, 2019)
  2. misoneism
    hatred of change or innovation
    Every progress in nature is the result of a struggle between the tendency to immobility, manifested by misoneism, or the hatred of novelty, and a foreign force which seeks to conquer this tendency. Lombroso, Gina
    It's hiding, but neo- is in misoneism, after the prefix mis-, meaning "hatred" — as in misogyny, for example. So someone who hates new things, or change, or surprises is a misoneist.
  3. neologism
    a newly invented word or phrase
    It was the First World War and the embargo on all German products, especially chemicals, that was the catalyst to the golden age of ‘industrial research’, a neologism of the 1920s. Nature (Oct 21, 2019)
    Words beginning with neo will often have a Greek root as well. In this case, logos is Greek for "word," as in dialog or logic. It literally means "new word." So if you make up a word to describe a new phenomenon, that's a neologism. "Meme," "subreddit," and "avatar" are all neologisms of the digital age.
  4. neonatal
    relating to the infant during the first month after birth
    Last January the group reported sequencing results from 159 newborns—mostly healthy babies but also some ill ones in the neonatal ICU. Nature (Dec 3, 2019)
  5. neophyte
    a participant with no experience with an activity
    “Anytime you are the topic of discussion, it’s a good thing,” said Kelly Dietrich, a Democratic strategist who trains future candidates for office and helps neophyte candidates break through to the public. Reuters (Dec 20, 2019)
    Phiton is "plant" in Greek, so neophyte originally meant "newly planted" or "a sprout." Now, to use a neologism, it refers to a "noob."
  6. novel
    an extended fictional work in prose
    Then, when I start writing the novel, I avoid reading novels, and I only read poetry for a while. New York Times (Dec 26, 2019)
    Novellus is a Latin adjective meaning "new or unusual." In thirteenth century Italian, novella was used to describe the ten stories in Bocaccio's Decameron. A novel is now a lengthy work of fiction.
  7. novella
    a short novel
    Ms. Spencer wrote nine novels and novellas and dozens of stories, many of them published in the New Yorker and collected in her 2001 anthology “The Southern Woman.” Washington Post (Dec 23, 2019)
    A novella refers to a fictional story that's shorter than a novel. There's no set rule for what the exact difference is, but let's say that a novella is longer than a short story and shorter than a novel.
  8. novelty
    originality by virtue of being refreshingly new
    At the time, augmented reality held promise but was largely a novelty. Los Angeles Times (Dec 20, 2019)
  9. novice
    someone new to a field or activity
    Some tips for novices: Eat the soup with chopsticks in one hand, a spoon in the other. Washington Post (Dec 10, 2019)
    Novice is a synonym for neophyte. In the case of someone new to a religious order, especially a monastic one, you'll often see the word novitiate.
  10. renovate
    restore to a previous or better condition
    The Oxford Eagle reports that the current McCormick’s cafe inside the hotel is being renovated. Washington Times (Dec 28, 2019)
    The prefix re- means "to do again," so renovate means "to make new again."
  11. supernova
    a star that explodes and becomes luminous in the process
    When a dense stellar core called a white dwarf acquires enough material from a companion star orbiting nearby, it burns up in the nuclear fusion blast of a Type Ia supernova. Scientific American (Dec 27, 2019)
Created on Fri Dec 20 13:34:38 EST 2019 (updated Thu Jan 02 10:38:14 EST 2020)

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