logodaedaly

Noun

logodaedaly (countable and uncountable, plural logodaedalies)

1. (rare) Cleverness or skill in the coining of new words.
   • In questions of philosophy or divinity, that have occupied the learned, I could bring ten instances of logodaedaly, or verbal legerdemain, which have perilously confirmed prejudices, and withstood the advancement of truth, in consequence of the neglect of verbal debate, i. e. strict discussion of...1826, Samuel Bailey, A Letter to a Political Economist
   • He mimed and mocked me. His allusions were definitely highbrow. He was well-read. He knew French. He was versed in logodaedaly and logomancy.1955, Vladimir Nabokov, chapter 23, in Lolita, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, published August 1958, →OCLC, part 2, pages 251–252
2. (rare) A cleverly or skilfully coined new word.
   • ...During his flight, he said, he commenced an interesting train of speculation
     On why there happened to be such a word as defenestration.
     There is not, he said, a special word for being rolled down a roof into a gutter;
     There is no verb to describe the action of beating a man to death with a...ca. 1950 Richard Percival Lister: Defenestration. Yet More Comic and Curious Verse. Penguin Books. 1959