Le traitement de la néologie dans la neuvième édition du Dictionnaire de l’Académie française

This article examines the approach to neology adopted in the ninth edition of the Académie française dictionary. How indeed can continuity between editions be maintained with regard to the proverbial slow pace at which the dictionary is produced? The answer to this question is the main topic of this paper, which shows in particular that the updating of correct usage (“le bon usage”) is one of the Academicians’ major preoccupations. Although the Académie Française is very careful not to condemn specialised vocabulary too quickly to obsolescence, it has been open to change, in particular to new words. This has been achieved by tapping into various sources of new words, in particular neologisms, technical terms, loanwords and linguistic regionalisms.