“Bling” is the term typically used to describe conspicuous consumption: the flaunting of wealth, showing off your goods, or even just “shiny stuff.” As you can see from the last sentence, “bling” was a handy way to describe 22″ spinner wheels on your black SUV, your large jewelry, or your fancy-capped teeth.

The term, and its repetitive brother “Bling-Bling,” were born in rap music. There is dispute about the actual biological father, but the birth range is in the late 1990s, making it barely adolescent. They crossed over into mainstream speech shortly thereafter, and made the Merriam-Webster Dictionary in 1999.

The mid-00s (2003-2008) were blingin.’ People who could not afford bling used credit and other means to get bling. Like fish to a shiny lure, some blingers couldn’t get enough bling. A recent Google search turned up 20,900,000 hits. But that’s Google. A nearly-bling Bing search came up with 4,540,000 results.

Then those pesky credit card companies wanted their bills paid, the banks wanted their car payments, and the mortgage companies wanted (gasp!) their mortgages paid. Paying for bling started losing out to paying for things like food.

It looks like it’s time for a word for things that used to be bling. Please get to know “Blung.” Blung is now available for your use. Blung is an adjective, but can be used wherever bling was used. If something was bling, it can now be blung. If something was blingin,’ it can now be blungin.’ Unfortunately, all that crap you bought to be bling, is now just a garage/wardrobe/dental bridge full of blung.

Sorry to impose blung so early in the life of bling, but we were patient with bling for more than 10 years, and bling was losing its bling anyway. Bling is Blung.