Actually, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the OED now acknowledges recency as a synonym for recentness. (I've found it in other dictionaries.) But I'd almost rather Aubury had coined the term. Surely adventury in Gilbert's original was a coinage? It's true that some made-up words are best suited to nonsense verse -- runcible, frabjous -- but even sensical light verse should be able to deploy the occasional silly neologism. It's one of those techniques, like deliberate misspelling, that should be used sparingly, but not declared off limits.
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