{"id":7147,"date":"2022-08-03T18:06:07","date_gmt":"2022-08-03T18:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/?p=7147"},"modified":"2022-08-03T18:06:07","modified_gmt":"2022-08-03T18:06:07","slug":"ghosted-meaning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/ghosted-meaning\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghosted \u2013 Meaning, Origin and Usage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Did a person you like suddenly stop communicating with you? If so, they \u2018ghosted\u2019 you.<\/p>\n

This post unpacks the meaning and origin of this expression.<\/p>\n

Meaning<\/h2>\n

The term \u2018ghosted<\/em>\u2019 means you cut off all communication with a person with no warning. It\u2019s a way of completely disconnecting from someone, usually a person you\u2019re dating. Most people will \u2018ghost\u2019 someone after a few dates if they don\u2019t think the relationship has any future. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Ghosting<\/em> is considered unfair to the other person, giving them no closure on the relationship.<\/p>\n

If a person \u2018ghosts<\/em>\u2019 you, they don\u2019t pick up your phone calls or respond to your texts. Sometimes, they may block you on social media to avoid facing you again. If you see someone that \u2018ghosted<\/em>\u2019 you in public, they are likely to pretend they didn\u2019t see you or don\u2019t know who you are when they\u2019re around others.<\/p>\n

Example Usage<\/h2>\n

\u201cI was chatting to this girl on Facebook, and she suddenly stopped talking to me, blocked me, and I never heard from her again. She totally ghosted me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI got ghosted by this girl once. We went out on a couple of dates, and then I never heard from her again. She never told me what freaked her out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was dating this girl once, and she ghosted me. A few months later, I saw her again with some other guy, and she couldn\u2019t even look me in the eye.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all fun and games until she leaves. The last girl I dated ghosted me. She never even called me and told me what turned her off about me. Now I have a bit of a mental block with talking to women.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI totally ghosted this guy last week. It was so funny. He tried to call me like a million times and sent me around 100 DMs. What a psycho.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI ghosted this guy last weekend after I was how he treated the waiter at dinner. I can\u2019t hang around with douchebags like that. He\u2019s still texting me, asking me what happened. Lol.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\" \"\"<\/p>\n

Origin<\/h2>\n

The expression \u2018ghosted\u2019 originates from celebrity relationships. Charlize Theron claimed she stopped dating Sean Penn in 2015, choosing to distance herself from him by not picking up his calls or answering his text messages.<\/p>\n

Shortly after the couple split, the New York Times wrote an article on ghosting, describing the behavior in detail. However, the term goes back further than this, with the earliest entry in the Urban Dictionary being in 2009. The post in the Urban dictionary refers to a guy ghosting a girl.<\/p>\n

A survey by the Huffington Post showed that 11% of participants had ghosted someone before. The research shows that 15% of men have ghosted someone, while 25% of women admit to using the strategy.<\/p>\n