Freying

[Benjamin Zimmer]

The eponymization of (James) Frey was inevitable, though it seems to
be a bit inhibited by the fact that many people are unsure whether to
pronounce his name as "fry" or "fray", e.g.:

http://donnaandrews.typepad.com/donna_andrews/2006/01/so_is_it_stirfr.html
So is it "Stir-Freyed" or "Freyed at the Edges"?

(Oprah and most of the media folks pronounce it as "fry".)

Some verbal uses, both transitive and intransitive:

http://donnaandrews.typepad.com/donna_andrews/2006/01/so_is_it_stirfr.html
And by alchemy, I don't mean Freying my experience for blog purposes
and making it something greater than it is.

http://musementpark.blogspot.com/2006/01/truly-good-read.html
About one of the story's more dramatic turns, I asked jokingly if he
was James Freying us.

http://www.gawker.com/news/james-frey/anderson-cooper-sensitively-handles-frey-controversy-151066.php#c45855
Freying is the new lying. Run with it, kids.

http://drunkonink.com/2006/01/why-readers-got-james-freyed.html
Why Readers Got James Freyed
At my Barnes and Nobles book club only one out of seven was upset by
being Freyed, two said they never took memoirs literally anyway and
the remaining four shrugged 'no matter, it was a good read.'

http://mehinda.livejournal.com/80320.html
My senior year of college found me participating in my first writing
workshops. First semester was advanced non-fiction writing, through
which I James Freyed my way before Frey knew what it meant to
fabricate the truth.


--Ben Zimmer

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org