What’s a real word? What’s a word really?
Is ad agency McCann Melbourne wrong to create a word from thin air to sell product for their client Macquarie dictionary?
Well, that’s what happened. And the word is “phubbing,” verb form ‘phub.’ I’ll have to buy the dictionary. It means to ignore someone you’re physically in front of in favour of your phone.
Language is mercurial. Words are made by making words. The problem for McCann Melbourne and Macquarie Dictionary is being caught-out doing it. McCann, apparently, along with using the word, started a Facebook page called “stop phubbing” and a PR campaign to push their ‘term’ into full word-dom. Now it’s world-wide. The irony is being caught doing it made the word way more popular than just the ad-campaign would have. Tricky.
What about the etymological issue? McCann defines their word as ‘snubbing’ someone with your phone– is that an etymological clue? Is “phubbing,” to “phub,” a port-manteau of “phone” and “snub?” Probefinitely…
The new word’s a larger testament not just to the absolute flexibility of language, but to the changing ways people get their language today: mostly through the internet. It’s why Macquarie needed help to sell a print dictionary in the first place.
Check out a video of baby phub’s gestation process on YouTube. Or go read a book.
