It is no coincidence the title of this post contains a neologism in Spanish (the word “online”); in fact, the word is the heading to this post (indeed, the word “post” is yet another neologism in Spanish!) precisely because of its widespread presence in Spanish spoken in recent years. The increasing use of neologisms in Spanish and the dissemination of words borrowed from other languages led to the creation of a work bank of these terms by the Cervantes Institute.
This is not the first post in which we have reviewed the tools that the Cervantes Institute makes available to users. The Neologisms Word Bank allows for using a search engine that explores lists neologisms made between 2004 and 2010. Each term (in Spanish, or also, mainly thanks to collaboration with the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, in Catalan) is accompanied by an example of its use in context, any relevant grammatical or typographical information, and a description of its etymology.
Additionally, the Neologisms Word Bank gives us access to a complete list of terms by year of incorporation. This is especially useful if one wishes to form an idea about the passing of “linguistic time” for acceptance of new words.
As indicated by its creators, the list of neologisms “does not imply value judgments,” but rather, “functions as a labelled inventory from which researchers can establish diagnostics and conduct analyses on the use and implementation of neologisms in Spanish and Catalan.” It is therefore up to the translator, or editor, to decide on the use of one term over another, be it sanctioned by the Royal Spanish Academy [Real Academia Española] or not.
