“Unfriend” leads tech charge in 2009’s top words
Unfriend – to remove a contact on a social networking site – has been named the word of the year by staff from the New Oxford American Dictionary. Its editors say several tech-related words were considered for the honor.
As somebody who writes about technology, I have to say that not only have I never used this word myself, but I’ve never heard anyone I know use it, or even seen it referenced anywhere before this announcement.
To me it feels as if the editors concerned have picked the word because it intrigues them linguistically rather than because it is serves a genuine communicative process. Indeed, the dictionary’s senior lexicographer says the word “has real lex-appeal”. Urgh.
Devin Coldeway of CrunchGear has an interesting theory: he suggests that the editors would have preferred to choose “friend” but, even as a verb, that has been in dictionaries for several centuries, so “unfriend” was a way to get the Facebook reference in.
The other tech words considered included:
Hashtag: using # before a set phrase in Twitter to make it easier to search for posts on a subject. (While used in very narrow circumstances, that seems more interesting to me as the process it describes is not only a relatively new development, but one which was created by users rather than Twitter itself.)
Intexticated: driving while being distracted by a cellphone. (While topical, this reeks of somebody trying too hard to create a cute word.)
Netbook: a very small and portable computer. (This has certainly caught on, to the point that it doesn’t feel like slang, though the barrier between netbook and notebook is a matter for philosophers and Microsoft license lawyers alike.)
Paywall: a method of making part of a Web site subscription only.
Sexting: sending sexually explicit text messages and photos on a cellphone. (I always thought this word sounded hideously clumsy until I heard Alex Kingston use it on Law & Order: SVU, at which point I was absolutely fine with it.)
It’s important to note that these words have not been added to the New Oxford American Dictionary itself. That book, which has only had two editions since its 2001 launch, requires evidence of more established use over time.
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