Language

All for Un- and Un- for All

How did one prefix become so unavoidable?

Here are some titles, websites, and brand names that have drifted into my awareness during the last eight months:

• Unjected: “a place to meet like-minded unvaccinated people”
• Unwoke: a book by U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), published in November 2023
• UnXeptable: a grassroots movement for a democratic Israel, founded in 2020
• Unlimit, a London-based financial-technology company that promises “borderless payments”
• Unflattering by Dacy Gillespie, The Unspeakable by Meghan Daum, and The Unpublishable by Jessica DeFino (three unrelated Substack newsletters)
• Unshrinking: a book about fatphobia by Kate Manne (publication date: January 9, 2024)
• Unpregnant: a 2020 movie about a determined teen and her abortion, based on a 2019 novel of the same name
• Unplanned: a 2019 feature film with an anti-abortion message
• UnHerd: a British news site that aims to “push back against the herd mentality with new and bold thinking, and to provide a platform for otherwise unheard ideas, people and places”
• Unsplash: a source for copyright-free images like the “Unfriend” image posted below

Clearly, and despite the song lyric, un- is not the loneliest number. It’s a member of a very crowded club. In my own…