Last but not least: It unt and unt in the forest of words
The English prefix "un-" is all the rage: you can "unfollow" on Twitter, "unfavorite" on YouTube and "unfrienden" on Facebook - the latter was recently named English Word of the Year 2009 by the New Oxford English Dictionary.
But anyone who thinks that the un-boom is a phenomenon of today's social networking society is mistaken: back in 1967, the lemonade 7-Up advertised itself as "Un-Cola", with the slogan "put some un- in your life" - the following May, young people heeded the call and climbed onto the barricades. Even today, the new popularity of the old prefix is more than just a linguistic curiosity: with the undo command, for example, which is well known to all computer users, information technology has taught us that our actions can always be undone, according to the GDI Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute's Trend Radar 2.09, which is entirely dedicated to the current success of the prefix. Un-fashion has another meaning, however: as a negation, the prefix stands for rejection. As a sign of discomfort, un- is the abbreviation of the desire for change, a kind of blank space for what is to come, but which we cannot yet properly understand and name.
There are countless examples of what can be un-branded: Branding, Store, Convenience, Comsuption, Packaging, Pricing, Restaurant, Model, Conference, Teaching, Possessing or Economy. You can find out what unbranding, unrestaurant, unmodel and co. mean here. here (Source: Trendradar 2.09 of the GDI).
But don't let the many us make you feel insecure: enjoy the wonderful Christmas season, spend lots of time with family and friends and have a good start to 2010!
There are countless examples of what can be un-branded: Branding, Store, Convenience, Comsuption, Packaging, Pricing, Restaurant, Model, Conference, Teaching, Possessing or Economy. You can find out what unbranding, unrestaurant, unmodel and co. mean here. here (Source: Trendradar 2.09 of the GDI).
But don't let the many us make you feel insecure: enjoy the wonderful Christmas season, spend lots of time with family and friends and have a good start to 2010!
