“Ooh! Ooh! I made up a new word.”

Sounds brainy, huh? The sort of excitement we associate with the freckled and bespectacled, perhaps the yearbook crew. The sort, in short, we mock.

But you don’t have to be a taxonomist to feel glee at a new locution, or yearn for a word that means “cheating” and “morally justified.” Why, don’t you think the guy who coined “razzmatazz” got a round of back slaps from his mates when that rhyme came skipping from his lips?

Making up a word is as fresh a thrill as watching your child thrash the schoolyard bully.

In fact, there’s a word for the sensation one gets following a neologism - “neologasm.” Now, you ...