funemployed

English

WOTD – 16 August 2016

Etymology

Blend of fun +‎ unemployed.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌfʌnɪmˈplɔɪd/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔɪd

Adjective

funemployed (not comparable)

1. (neologism) In a state of enjoyable unemployment.
   • 2009 May 15, Bryce Longton, “Not another travel deal site”, in BlackBook‎^[1], archived from the original on 16 July 2016:

     Maybe you’re funemployed and you can go anytime?

   • 2009 June 4, Kimi Yoshino, “For the ‘funemployed,’ unemployment is welcome”, in Los Angeles Times‎^[2], archived from the original on 7 May 2016:

     Buoyed by severance, savings, unemployment checks or their parents, the funemployed do not spend their days poring over job listings.

   • 2009 June 5, “The recession and ‘funemployment’”, in The Week‎^[3], archived from the original on 16 July 2016:

     And the so-called millennial generation's "weirdly upbeat" word "speaks volumes" about how this well-fed, well-organized age group is dealing with the worst downturn since the 1930s—the "young and funemployed" are taking the time to relax and "find themselves," but many also volunteer or self-educate.

   • 2016, Benjamin H. Snyder, The Disrupted Workplace […] , Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 144:

     A world without rigid temporal boundaries gave some a rare chance to relax and regroup after many years of busyness. Some took advantage of this freedom by becoming, as one respondent cleverly put it, “funemployed.”

   • 2022, Whitney Goodman, Toxic Positivity […] , Penguin, →ISBN, page 52:

     Instead of being employed and lamenting over the loss of employment, money, and opportunity, we're now expected to be “funemployed”!

Related terms

• funemployment