etymology - Is there a name for a word or term that is persistently re-coined?


I came across the term "sex film actress" in the Op-Ed column The Disposable Woman. I could guess what the phrase meant, as "sex worker" is a new term for "prostitute", and therefore "sex film actress" would be the equivalent for "porn star".


I checked if this term had been used before, and there were a smattering of uses, but it looked so infrequent it seemed as if the term was coined each time. Is there a name for such a phenomenon?



Answer



I don't think there's currently a word for it, but you could probably get away with calling it a re-neologism. (Although in the case of "sex film actress", the re-phrasing is so pointless even by PC standards that I'd have to label it a "useless euphemism".)


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