Baltimore man invented word of the year "Unfriend"?
Could the word "unfriend" -- which has come to mean dumping someone as a friend on Facebook -- have been invented right here in Baltimore?
Ron Samuelson thinks so -- and he claims in a blog post he was the first to use it in an earlier blog post which got the attention of a Wall Street Journal reporter, who ended up writing a story about the topic.
"Unfriend" really wormed its way into our lexicon -- it just so happens that "unfriend" was named "word of the year" last month by the New American Oxford Dictionary.
Samuelson, who sells diamonds via Samuelson's Diamonds in downtown Baltimore, tweets under @diamondbuyer and @SamuelsonsRocks on Twitter.
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Comments
On a related note, word is that he also gave Microsoft the idea for Windows 7 ;-)
Posted by: Jed3d | December 7, 2009 11:36 AM
And if you believe that, there is a bridge in Brooklyn I will sell you.
I have been using "unfriend" in my own lexicon for a little bit longer than Samuelson's claim to its stake. You don't see me rushing to claim it as my own invention.
Give someone a blog, and eventually they will claim they invented the Internet. Oh wait...
Posted by: JJT | December 7, 2009 12:35 PM
Samuelson claims to have invented this term by being the first to use it? On October 29, 2008?
Here's a Google blog search from January 1, 2005 to October 1, 2008, showing 17,940 hits for "unfriend" during that period. Granted, not all of them refer to unfriending for social networks, but many of them do.
http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?client=safari&q=unfriend&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&scoring=d&as_maxm=10&as_maxy=2008&as_maxd=1&as_miny=2005&as_minm=1&as_mind=1&as_drrb=b&ctz=300&c1cr=1%2F1%2F2005&c2cr=10%2F1%2F2008&btnD=Go
Posted by: EsquireMac | December 7, 2009 2:37 PM
Somewhere a man from the fifteenth century rolls over in his grave: He proposed (with little success) that the opposite of 'befriend' ought to be 'unfriend'...
Posted by: RiverC | December 7, 2009 2:43 PM
I am unfriending you Ron!
Posted by: john ferber | December 7, 2009 2:43 PM
"Unfollow" is my next invention, or should it be "Defollow"? ;)
Posted by: Ron Samuelson | December 7, 2009 2:53 PM
this guy invented the word unfriend like al gore invented the internet. what a tool.
Posted by: rayray | December 10, 2009 2:06 PM
If he posted that on his blog with the aim of getting more business for his jewelry store, it unworked, and I will now unshop there.
Posted by: rb | December 14, 2009 5:30 AM