Vol. 10 · Portmanteaus ·Contemporary (2000–) ·2004
FOMO
fear of missing out
- Meaning
- Anxiety that an interesting event is happening elsewhere.
- Source words
- fear of missing + out
- Coined by
- Patrick McGinnis
- Year
- 2004
Background
McGinnis used the term in a 2004 Harvard Business School magazine article. The word describes a feeling almost fully constituted by social media; its pre-2004 life was essentially nonexistent.
Contemporary (2000–)
Faster coinage, faster canonisation. Brexit and podcast both reached the OED within a decade of first use — historically rapid. Social media has made visibility, not invention, the rate-limiting step.
Two words, one coinage.
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