  We study neologism use in two samples of early English correspondence, from
1640--1660 and 1760--1780. Of especial interest are the early adopters of new
vocabulary, the social groups they represent, and the types and functions of
their neologisms. We describe our computer-assisted approach and note the
difficulties associated with massive variation in the corpus. Our findings
include that while male letter-writers tend to use neologisms more frequently
than women, the eighteenth century seems to have provided more opportunities
for women and the lower ranks to participate in neologism use as well. In both
samples, neologisms most frequently occur in letters written between close
friends, which could be due to this less stable relationship triggering more
creative language use. In the seventeenth-century sample, we observe the
influence of the English Civil War, while the eighteenth-century sample appears
to reflect the changing functions of letter-writing, as correspondence is
increasingly being used as a tool for building and maintaining social
relationships in addition to exchanging information.
