I prolly posted this here afore; but.

[excerpt from Jesse S. email]
>can you explain to me the difference
> between a nonce-word and a hapax legomenon?

A hapax legomenon--the term is normally used only in reference to dead languages--it a word or form that is found only once in a given corpus (an entire language, the works of a particular author, etc.). That's it--there's no other implication here about its use. Often the assumption is that the word could have been more common but the one example is all we have. Note that the reoccurrence of the word in criticism doesn't change its status; that is, if you say "so-and-so is a hapax in Shakespeare", your use of "so-and-so" does not mean that you now have another example in English and it's no longer a hapax.

A nonce-word is generally used to mean a word coined for a specific occasion, with the implication that it's not likely to be used again or outside a very limited range. While nonce-words _can_ become widespread, the assumption is that they won't.

hth.