"coin" = to call; dub; name;

[Grant Barrett]

On Oct 10, 2006, at 11:28, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> A reporter on Fox News has reminded us this a.m. that Jennifer
> Wilbanks "was coined 'The Runaway Bride.' "

I've had my eye on this for a while and did a blog entry about it in
January:

http://www.doubletongued.org/coined

The gist of it is that the new "to coin" means that there's a problem
with disambiguation, where person A says "He coined the word..."
meaning, "he said something significant; gave something/one a name;
or or called someone/thing by a name" but person B thinks they mean
"He was the first person ever to have used that word or turn of phrase."

In discussing this with others, I've come to believe this
transformation of meaning is due to the cliche, "to coin a phrase,"
especially when it, too, is being taken literally.

Grant Barrett
Double-Tongued Dictionary
http://www.doubletongued.org/
editor at doubletongued.org

The Official Dictionary of Unofficial English (May 2006, McGraw-Hill)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0071458042/

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org