What is a Lexeme in programming

When creating a login and logout, in the UserService.cfc, this code:

User function retrieveUserByUsername( required username ) {
return populator.populateFromQuery(
new(),
queryExecute( “SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = ?”, [ arguments.username ] )
);
}
puts a red squiggly under the new(), and tells me “Expected a lexeme-like token here.” I can’t seem to figure out what it is expecting. The online video tutorial didn’t receive this same error?