It seems that “word of the year” announcements have become the de facto way for dictionary makers to grab some social media buzz by selecting a word from our neck of the woods. And sure enough, they’ve done it again, this time with Oxford Dictionary declaring “unfriend” the word of 2009.
The definition of the verb is just as you’d expect: “To remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook.” Several other tech and social media centric word choices were considered, including hashtag, sexting, freemium, and paywall.
Other words that have recently received the dictionary treatment include “Twitter,” which entered the Collins English Dictionary earlier this year, and “Facebook,” which was Collins’ word of the year back at the end of 2007. The tradition of picking a new media word seems to have originated back in 2004, when “Blog” made the top of Merriam Webster’s annual list.
See Also: 12 Great Tales of De-Friending