“‘Unfriend’ has real lex-appeal.”
— Christine Lindberg, senior lexicographer for the Oxford University Press’s U.S. dictionary program. Today The New Oxford American Dictionary revealed that ‘unfriend’ is the 2009 word of the year. If you’ve got a Facebook profile, you’ve likely unfriended some annoying person in your network. Someone may have even (gasp) unfriended you!
There were lots of tech-isms in the running this year–paywall, netbook, sexting. One tech trend actually spawned its own mini-lexicon, but no news about the official acceptance of those terms outside the Tweetaholics and Twitterati! –Jessica Shambora