8 New Verbs for the Decade ...

As I scan the library where I’m sitting right now, I have a great view of the computer screens of about 40 students, and with a few exceptions, they’re all Facebooking. That is, they’re all using the Facebook online social network, tagging photos, semi-stalking ex boyfriends, and posting status updates that say something like, “at the library, doing homework.”

This is a set of verbs related to Facebooking. Friending someone, of course, means adding them to your network of friends on Facebook. Unfriending someone means deleting them from your list of friends… by the way, recently unfriended people don’t get messages letting them know they’ve been deleted… in case you’re wondering… so expect that some of them may try to re-friend you.

Here’s a second set of verbs related to Facebook, connected now to so many news, shopping, and entertainment websites. If you “like” something on Facebook, your friends will see it, spreading the word about something as significant as a news event or a new pair of wedges, or something as silly as a friend’s status update about studying at the library. While there’s no way to dislike something on Facebook, people still say it all the time.

While you might be familiar with “texting” (sending text messages) perhaps you’re not sure what sexting means. It’s spicy! Sexting is sending racy, sexy text messages (with or without photos)…

LOL means “laugh out loud,” and the acronym has been around for ages… but using it as a verb, as in, “I just lol’d all over myself” has taken on a meaning all of its own, securing it as a popular new verb. A related word is a noun, the elusive and hilarious LOLCAT. Look it up.

For centuries, the F word has been a noun, verb, adjective, personal pronoun, and an adverb… quite versatile for four little letters! Across the board in the past decade, though, it’s been used more and more as a verb, particularly by frat boys, to describe actions that have little in common with the original intended use and meaning.

I happen to adore the new use of this verb! It’s such an accurate description of when something goes horribly, hilariously wrong. For a clear visual representations, Google “failblog.” You’ll see exactly what I mean, and you’ll start using it in everyday conversation, too.

We’re all familiar with the search site Google, and now using “google” as a verb means simply searching for something using this ubiquitous tool. While “Googling yourself” sounds obscene, it actually just means exercising your Narcissistic right of seeing what’s out there on the internet about yourself.

… and these are just a few of the new verbs I can think of… I know there are so many more! Can you add a new verb to my list? And please, tell me what it means!