Soon after this news broke, I checked Google and found that "about 44,800,000 results" had been recorded for the word "snub." I also learned that the verb snub can mean controlling movement of things such as horses and boats, usually with a rope tied to a post. And I discovered that in geometry snub is "an operation applied to a polyhedron," but I confess to snubbing the remainder of that definition.

Personally, I've been well snubbed by teachers, would-be girlfriends, sports coaches and potential employers. More than one maitre d' has snubbed me — presumably due to feeling snubbed by my meager tip the last time I asked for a window table.

Getting back to a hectic week of international snubbing, Britons were in a tizzy over news that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were snubbing the royal establishment by stepping away from their senior roles. The Daily Express newspaper used the phrase "Royal Snub" on at least three different stories — including one that said Meghan was snubbing President Trump by refusing to relocate in the U.S. until he was out of office.

While that snubbing was underway, Mr. and Mrs. Trump marched to the 50-yard line at the college football championship game in New Orleans, no doubt wondering if the crowd was in a snubbing mood. Last fall, you'll recall, fans in Washington, D.C., snubbed the president at Game 5 of the World Series. This time he was greeted mostly with innocuous chants of "U.S.A."

More than ever we dwell on stock tables, box-office charts, TV ratings and election polls. At the close of each year we fixate on the ten best of this and the ten best of that. Ostensibly this is because we love winners. In fact, our greater curiosity is about losers.

Few of us can relate to being honored, but we all know how it feels to be snubbed.

(c) Peter Funt. Distributed by Cable syndicate.