newfanglement
Etymology
From newfangled + -ment.
newfanglement means the quality of being newfangled; novelty or innovation, especially when very complicated or faddish. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 82 out of 100.
Why “newfanglement” is a great word
NEWFANGLIMENT — [Noun] The quality of being newfangled, or a novel and often overly complicated or faddish innovation. From newfangled (meaning "attracted to novelty," itself from new + obsolete fangle, "to fashion, trifle") + the noun-forming suffix -ment. Unlike "novelty," which celebrates simple newness, or "innovation," which implies purposeful progress, a newfanglement is change for its own fussy, dubious sake. It is the eighteenth button on a remote control that performs no function, the proprietary kitchen gadget that solves a problem no one had, the app that complicates the act of turning on a light—a small monument to the restless urge to complicate the quiet sufficiency of what already works.
noun
- The quality of being newfangled; novelty or innovation, especially when very complicated or faddish.“So it is in traffic of all sorts, which this world lives upon; it's all newfanglement, and that's the fashion of the times.”
- Something that is newfangled.“The harvesting machine — drawn by a big caterpillar or four-wheel-drive tractor — is a costly and colossal newfanglement which unearths two rows of potatoes simultaneously, shakes out the soil, separates the rocks from the potatoes which are delivered by moving belt to the accompanying truck that hauls the potatoes to the potato barn where they are mechanically unloaded.”