By now, you may have read that the Oxford Dictionary has selected "unfriend" as the word of the year. The choice was made for it's "lex potential," and cultural currency. But a google image search on the word reveals--nada--nothing pops up! You're probably wondering, "what does this old pix of two old guys have to do with the word of the year?" Read on...
Christine Lindberg, Senior Lexicographer for Oxford said unfriend makes "an interesting choice for Word of the Year. Most “un-” prefixed words are adjectives (unacceptable, unpleasant), and there are certainly some familiar “un-” verbs (uncap, unpack), but “unfriend” is different from the norm. It assumes a verb sense of “friend” that is really not used (at least not since maybe the 17th century!).” There is now a debate raging among social networks whether the word "defriend" may have been the better choice.
For me, there is a runner-up word that I would have preferred to see win: deleb. As in dead celebs. Something that captured our culture voraciously this past summer with so many high profile passings.
Forbes just composed a list of the highest earning delebs over the past 12 months. If you search the word or image for "deleb," very little currently pops up. This is a word I think will continue to seed itself into culture. I would have never guessed in a gazillion years that two Broadway guys would rank #2 on the high rollers deleb list recently compiled by Forbes. As the iconic Broadway composers in the pix, Rodgers & Hammerstein, would sing, "Impossible. Things are happening everyday."
Yves Saint Laurent – $350 million
Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein – $235 million (combined)
Michael Jackson – $90m
Elvis Presley – $55m
J.R.R. Tolkien – $50m
Charles Schulz – $35m
John Lennon – $15m
Dr Seuss (Theodor Geisel) – $15m
Albert Einstein – $10m
Michael Crichton – $9m
Jimi Hendrix – $8m
Aaron Spelling – $8m
Andy Warhol – $6m
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