Calefare

This has always been an intriguing word to me. In the entertainment industry hereabouts, it has come to mean 'a bit-part character' (or charitably, 'a member of the supporting cast'). But it has the look of a word from some Romance language in it, and if it were Latin, it would probably mean 'to keep warm' – just as California means 'a warm oven'. Used in a modern world, perhaps calefare would mean 'a hot ticket', or 'stuff you eat which has a high energy value'. In its present context, it probably means 'seat-warmer'. That's the thing about neologisms; you never know when they might rise up from their primordial past and bite you.

Case in point, the late and unlamented airtropolis, that bastard child of 'metropolis' and 'airport' which some idiot bureaucrat thought would be a good idea. Never ever combine different languages in the same word in such a way that they look terribly disjoint. You cannot help the reader to suspend his disbelief when you do that, whether or not the reader is completely ignorant about the languages concerned; some things just look too wrong.

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Note: Classical Latin's equivalent of calefare does exist; originally, calefacere meant 'to make heat' or 'to generate warmth'. Classical Greek's equivalent of the terrible airtropolis would probably be aeropolis, 'city of (the) air'.