Neologisms

The Daily Telegraph has run an article congratulating itself on coining 251 new words. The newspaper appeals to the authority of the Oxford English Dictionary which of course provides the first instance in print of a neologism. The Haileyburian is given by the OED as the first source of the term Old Boy to describe a former (male) pupil of a school. Now that we are proudly coeducational we don't speak of Old Boys as much, and we are thankful that the foresighted founders of the Haileybury Society provided us with an androgynous term. "Haileyburian" is also usefully asexual. For a while the development department of my university college would send letters addressed rather cumbersomely to "Dear Alumni and Alumnae." Now their database and mail merge is clever enough to write to "Dear Mr Miller." That is pretty good, especially as the address on the envelope is to "Father L J MIller MA." (Not strictly correct to put the letters after using 'Father', but coping with clerical titles is a lifetime's study.) To return to the Telegraph and its neologisms, one which they claim is 'astroturf,' now a trademark. You may be aware that the development department at Haileybury is appealing to parents and alumni and alumnae all Haileyburians to try to raise funds for a second astroturf pitch at school. There is a blog about it, and you can contribute here. Thinking about it, given that there are people in Canada and Australia who call themselves Haileyburians, that word itself should perhaps be in the next OED.