WORD OF THE YEAR 2009
November 19, 2009 by Garrett Hawley
NEW YORK, NY – The New Oxford American Dictionary has picked their word of the year: ‘unfriend’!
The New Oxford American Dictionary is the North American English version of the New Oxford Dicionary of English, based in the United Kingdom.
Every year, the company tracks how the English language changes and chooses a new word that seems to reflect the mood and interests of the population that year.
For 2009, they picked ‘unfriend’, which originated as an action on online social networks like Facebook and Myspace. It is the act of removing someone from your network that you had previously added.
“It has both currency and potential longevity,” said Christine Lindberg, Senior Lexicographer for Oxford’s US 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.”
The Dictionary considered other words in a number of fields, such as technology (sexting), economy (funemployed), politics (birther) and the environment (ecotown).
