I find myself struggling between two worlds. The world I live in for some 10 or more hours a day – editing magazines, according to AP style guidelines – and the digital world. Each has its own language it seems, and I struggle to keep the two separate. I get a text from my kids and find myself gasping, while thinking, “I hope they know how to spell that word ‘in real life.’”
So you can imagine I was enthralled with the new words that have been included in “The New Oxford American Dictionary.” They are mergers of other words - some very creative. I particularly like this one: “intexticated.” I was almost hit from behind while driving home last night by a young girl who I am SURE was intexticated while driving.
The editors of the same dictionary announced their pick for “word of the year,” last week. It is “unfriend.” The cyber version of the snub from a classmate at the junior high lunch table. It’s the ultimate last word – like hanging up on someone during a phone call. It’s Al Pacino closing the door on Diane Keaton in “The Godfather.”
The good thing about unfriending someone is that it’s a stealth act. You don’t really know you’ve been unfriended until you make the effort to connect with your former friend. You don’t have to face the stares at the lunch table. You’re not left embarrassingly holding the phone with no one else on the other end and having to fake “Okay, see ya,” before hanging up. No, it’s a actually a more civil way of separating. No less a blow to one’s ego, but then, you can always binge on your iPhone to dull the pain and get intexticated.
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