Unfriend Named the Word of the Year

  • November 30, 2009
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“Unfriend” has recently been selected as the 2009 Word of the Year by the New Oxford American Dictionary.  Unfriend is defined as a verb and NewOxford_Dictionarymeans to remove someone as a “friend” on a social networking Web site, such as Facebook or Friendster.  According to Christine Lindberg, Senior Lexicographer for Oxford’s U.S. dictionary program, “In the online social networking context, its meaning is understood, so its adoption as a modern verb form makes this an interesting choice for Word of the Year.”  Christine goes on to say unfriend has longevity in that this term will likely be used outside of the social networking space in the near future.

Other words that made the finalists list for the 2009 Word of the Year include “funemployed,” referring to people taking advantage of their newly unemployed status to have fun and pursue other interests, “intexticated,” which refers to people texting while driving and “freemium,” meaning a business model where services are provided for free.

Wondering what other words made the finalists list?  Please click here to read the full article.

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