General

And the word of the year is…. “Unfriend”

A novel modern verb form, or “hackey trend piece”?

Unfriend (verb): To remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook. Yes, one of 2009’s most repeated buzzwords, “unfriend,” has moved beyond the realm of teen jargon; it’s now a bona fide Oxford English Dictionary-approved word. Oxford University Press announced that “unfriend” is its word of the year. Past choices include Hypermiling (2008), Locavore (2007), Carbon Neutral (2006), and Podcast (2005).
But not everyone is in agreement with Oxford U.S. dictionary senior lexicographer Christine Lindberg, who stresses that “unfriend” has great “currency and potential longevity.” Gawker writes: “These are all just hacky trend pieces from that year,” enforced by “journalists and bloggers (ahem) looking for some excuse to take another dip in the honeypot and reuse those novel widgets and gizmos we’ve been hypnotically waving in front of your faces for the past year.” The site summarizes: “ ‘Word of the Year’ = ‘Scam of the Year.’ ”

Gawker.com

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