Why is there no proper, elegant
word for the situation
where you find yourself
writing to the persons you invited
to say they no longer are welcome?
“reject”? No, you offered,
there is nothing for you to reject, except yourself.
“dis-invited”? An ugly prefix which far from fixes.
“uninvited”? Feigns ignorance of the invitation.
“withdraw/ rescind,”? Slighty better,
but both imply the invite
is yours to take back,
which once given,
is not without a fight.
And so we are left with no real way
in the English language
to (-) invite someone
without inviting trouble.
I was prompted to write this because of this and this and now this. Sigh.
