Unfriend [Wednesday Word] – older than you think

Unfriend: “I Hope, Sir, that we are not mutually Un-friended by this Difference which hath happened betwixt us.” OED citation, 1659.

Compare The Mysteries of Udolpho, by Ann Radcliffe, 1794: “But I believed, niece, you had a greater sense of propriety than to have received the visits of any young man in your present unfriended situation.”

As I write a piece on slang for Go! English magazine, I’ve enjoyed discovering a number of frowned-upon slang words that have a longer heritage than we might expect. Every generation likes to think its slang is the latest thing, but some of the latest words ain’t so novel.

Here on mentalfloss.com are 16 words that are much older than they seem, including

dude (1880s)

babe (1915 at least)

booze (1500s)

frigging (1500s, eg: “This shunting frigging new arrangement…has got every flaming thing foxed up.” 1943

 

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