friend, the verb

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Fri, Sep 19, 2008 at 5:47 PM, Marc Velasco <marcjvelasco at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Have we had this on here before?  If so, apologies for a re-post.
>
> ESPN columnist:
>
> Then again, I won money on the Broncos last week. I wouldn't just slow-clap
> Ed Hochuli, I'd probably hug him or try _to friend_ him on Facebook.
>
> I can't imagine that's the first time it's been used in print, but it's the
> first time I noticed it.

It's come up here a few times. In Dec. '04 I apparently thought
"(de)friend" was already too passe for WOTY consideration:

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0412E&L=ADS-L&P=R3148

In retrospect, it would have made a good candidate. Livejournal and
Friendster popularized the verb in '03, but it really took off with
Facebook in '04.


--Ben Zimmer

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