Zombieing
Etymology
A coinage extending the ghosting family of dating terms, built on the horror-movie zombie that returns from the grave. It circulated in relationship journalism and online dating discourse from around 2017 as a companion term to ghosting and breadcrumbing.
noun · /ZOM-bee-ing/
When someone who previously ghosted you abruptly reappears, acting as if nothing happened.
What it names
It names the unsettling return of a contact you’d written off: the person who vanished without a word resurfaces in your messages, rising from the dead like the metaphor promises. It captures both the surprise and the nerve of reappearing with no account of the disappearance.
Example
He ghosted me in spring and then started zombieing me with “hey stranger” texts in the fall.
Related idea
The sequel to ghosting: ghosting is the disappearance, zombieing is the uninvited return.
See also