'Unfriend' is 2009's Oxford Word of the Year - Point of View - Action News
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'Unfriend' is 2009's Oxford Word of the Year - Point of View

'Unfriend' is 2009's Oxford Word of the Year

iStock_unfriend.jpg

Oxford University Press embraced social media jargon when choosing its 2009 Word of the Year - "unfriend."

The OUP's blog defines "unfriend" as "To remove someone as a 'friend' on a social networking site such as Facebook."But the word's appeal wasn't entirely about new technology, said Oxfordsenior lexicographer Christine Lindberg: "It assumes a verb sense of"friend" that is really not used (at least not since maybe the 17thcentury!)"

Other contenders for Word of the Year came straight from the biggestnews stories of 2009: "zombie banks" (banks who continue to functionsolely because of government support) and "death panels" (a term AlaskaGov. Sarah Palin used when criticizing U.S. President Barack Obama'shealth care plan) both made the shortlist.

Full story (at the National Post)

What would you have chosen as the Oxford word of the year?