Colloquial meaning

Let us first consider the colloquial meaning of the word invention. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language [5] defines invention as follows²

1.

The act or process of inventing.

2.

A new device, method, or process developed from study and experimentation.

3.

Skill in inventing; inventiveness.

4.

A discovery; a finding.

Webster Online [15] defines invention as

1.

Discovery, finding.

2.

Productive imagination.

3.

Something invented as (1) a product of the imagination; (2) a device, contrivance, or process originated after study and experimentation.

4.

The act or process of inventing

WordNet [11] defines it as:

1.

The creation of something in the mind.

2.

A creation (a new device or process) resulting from study and experimentation.

3.

The act of inventing

An invention is a creation of the mind, and both the process to arrive at this creation or the capability to create it are referred to as invention. An invention is also supposed to be new, although it is unspecified for whom. An invention is a novel device, material, or technique.

It is also useful to contrast invention with two other highly related words: discovery and innovation. Although invention and discovery are synonymous in certain contexts, it is also common to use invention for a creation of the mind and discovery for a novel observation, usually of a natural phenomenon. We quote Reference.com to explain the difference between invention and innovation [8]:

Following the terminology of political economist Joseph Schumpeter, an invention differs from an innovation. While an invention is merely theoretical (even though it might have been filed with the Patent Office), an innovation is an invention that has been put into practice. However, this conflicts with the theory of social anthropologists and other social sciences researchers. In social sciences, an innovation is anything new to a culture. The innovation does not need to have been adopted.

We infer from the above that there are three phases that play a role in the colloquial meaning of invention:

1.

The capability or skill to invent.

2.

The act or process of invention.

3.

The outcome of this process.

Other phases like

4.

Application of the invention.

5.

Adoption of the invention.

belong to the realm of innovation. Another way to represent this distinction is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: From concept to innovation.