I suppose it was predictable that social media would figure large in everybody's Word of the Year lists. And sure enough, The New Oxford American Dictionary has chosen 'unfriend' as its WOTY. Here's how they define 'unfriend':
unfriend – verb – To remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook. As in, "I decided to unfriend my roommate on Facebook after we had a fight."
According to Christine Lindberg, Senior Lexicographer for Oxford’s US dictionary program, "It has both currency and potential longevity. 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."
You can read more about 'unfriend' and discover some of Oxford's other WOTY contenders (including freemium, paywall, sexting, teabagger) on the OUP blog.
By the way, last year's Oxford WOTY was hypermiling—how many of you can define that?
READ MORE
• New Oxford American Dictionary WOTY 2009 (Fritancy)
• Word of the Year: an unreliable yet fascinating barometer of tech (CrunchGear)
• Dictionary word of the year: 'Unfriend' (CNN)
• To befriend or unfriend, that is the question (Chicago Tribune)
