by Richard
For the last couple of years, the Webster’s New World Dictionary has celebrated the fluidity of the English language by publishing a word of the year. This word is picked “to reflect the ethos of the year and its lasting potential as a word of cultural significance and use.” So, without making you wait any longer, here’s the word of the year for 2009.
Unfriend.
Yes, that’s right. Unfriend. Which is defined by the New World Dictionary as a verb that means “To remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook.”
Wow. I knew that social networking and such like that was a pretty big deal, but I had no idea it had gained so much currency in the world that the normally stodgy dictionary folks were looking there as a good source for new words.
“It has both currency and potential longevity,” said Christine Lindberg, a language researcher for Oxford’s U.S. dictionary program. “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.”
Previous word of the year winners have been blog, overshare and hypermiling.
You know, a lot of this stuff reminds me of a book I once read. It’s called Frindle, by Andrew Clements. In it, the main character wants to irritate a language arts teacher so he invents a new word — frindle — for pen. Soon the whole country’s using it. Which, oddly, is almost exactly what’s happening here.
Hmm. Maybe there’s a word for that. If not, there should be. Get on it.
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