Lexicon ·
Marleying
noun, also verb (to Marley)
- Stated meaning
- When an ex gets back in touch out of the blue around Christmas.
- Operating meaning
- A closed account reopened in the one week of the year that supplies its own reason for writing, committing the sender to nothing that outlasts the week.
- Origin
- Coined by the dating site eHarmony in December 2017, after Jacob Marley, the ghost who returns on Christmas Eve in A Christmas Carol. Cambridge Dictionary entered it in October 2018.
Cambridge Dictionary (opens in a new window) defines it as “the activity of an ex-partner unexpectedly getting in touch around Christmas,” named for Jacob Marley, the ghost of Scrooge’s business partner, “who re-appears on Christmas Eve.” Metro (opens in a new window) reported it on December 20, 2017, with a survey of 4,054 UK adults which “found that 11% of singles have been Marleyed.” The next day Refinery29 (opens in a new window) and Stylist (opens in a new window) credited the coinage to eHarmony. Stylist printed the other column: “a further 8% have reached out to ‘Marley’ a previous partner.”
The source is apt. In Dickens, Marley returns on Christmas Eve to a former partner, in the chains he forged in life, to warn him about the business. The survey puts the trade at 11 percent received and 8 percent sent, which is a closer balance than most words in the genus can show.
Under load, Marleying reopens a closed account in the one week of the year that supplies its own reason for writing. The message needs no explanation, because the date provides one, and it commits the sender to nothing that outlasts the date. The recipient has to decide, between the season’s other obligations, whether an account is reopening or a card has arrived. The sender has arranged not to know which it was either.