pubilect

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Coined by Italian semiotician Marcel Danesi in 1987, from pubi- (as in pubescent, puberty) +‎ -lect.

Noun[edit]

pubilect (countable and uncountable, plural pubilects)

  1. The language of teenagers.
    • 2000, Gianrenzo P. Clivio, Marcel Danesi, The Sounds, Forms, and Uses of Italian: An Introduction to Italian Linguistics, Toronto, O.N. []: University of Toronto Press, →ISBN, page 185:
      Research on pubilects throughout the world shows that such terms have a very short lifespan. By comparison with vocabulary change in the language as a whole, which sometimes takes centuries, the rate of change in teen vocabularies is greatly accelerated.