Oxford's word of the year? 'Unfriend'

Perhaps in a sign of how the plague of social media has numbed us all to the value of legitimate human connections, the New Oxford American Dictionary has picked the verb "unfriend," or "to remove someone as a 'friend' on a social networking site such as Facebook," as its 2009 Word of the Year.

At the very least, it's a testament to the ubiquity of Facebook, which now has well over 300 million members around the world.

Facebook itself takes the process of "friending" and "unfriending" very seriously. It once sent warning notes to players of a third-party game called PackRat because it encouraged players to amass huge friends lists (good heavens! they're polluting the social graph!), banned a Burger King ad campaign that let members "sacrifice" their friends to get a free cheeseburger ("Friendship is strong, but the Whopper is stronger"), and still puts a cap of 5,000 on personal profiles' friends lists.

Last year's Oxford word of the year was the decidedly less mainstream "hypermiling."

A correction was made at 9:25 a.m. PT on November 21. It was players of PackRat, not PackRat itself, that were threatened with account suspension.

[Dmartin17]

And the dumbing of america continues...

[sdf0013]

That statement brings images of the movie Idiocracy. And yes, validation too. <shutter>

Never has such a work of fiction scared me as much as this movie to make me think it could really happen. Maybe not the way the movie portrays, but in such a way as this article could suggest. <double shutter>

:P

[OfficerNelson]

@sdf0013: Ah yes, that was a good movie... never would've heard of it had it not been for Wired plugging it, though. Shame they didn't release it big time. It would've made people realize which way we're heading.

[SX10 IS]

Oxford is English, not American.

[TheraCaffe]

I don't understand the logic behind this. New words are created and used in every language over the course of its evolution. Shakespeare himself introduced many words to the English language; in turn, there are now five times as many words in the language now than when he was using it. These things happen; it's nothing new.

[mjconver]

For 2009? That's so behind the times. My 16-year old son unfriended me in '08.

[sdf0013]

Gotta figure it probably takes time to get adopted by the masses and then integrated into selection process. Not every new word makes into the dictionary.

Doh was still the classic of all time.

[Renegade Knight]

Don't worry, he'll refriend you later when adultification sets in.

[X-Country]

sdf0013 wrote:
That statement brings images of the movie Idiocracy. And yes, validation too. <shutter>

Never has such a work of fiction scared me as much as this movie to make me think it could really happen. Maybe not the way the movie portrays, but in such a way as this article could suggest. <double shutter>
--------------------
<Irony> Speaking of dumb, the word you meant to use was "shudder", not "shutter". </Irony>

Not trying to insult you, I'm just saying...

[nuniobydnis]

Irregardless, It's a mute point of the upmost irrelevance. We don't _get_ french benefits!

[baconstang]

I didn't realize the Oxford was so focused on the under 20 demographic.

[acslater017]

@sdf0013:

I don't mean to be rude, but if you're going to lament the dumbing down of America, you should spell everything correctly.

shudder = to shake
shutter = window covers

[Lemon5]

Sorry, but I couldn't help but laugh. I love it when people try to act like they are smarter than other people, and misspell words (thank you firefox for having a spellcheck).

[Renegade Knight]

People most resemble what they rally against. Did I spell the right?

[cgarrett]

@Renegade Knight

I think you actually spelled the Left.

[FargoUT]

Maybe they actually meant "shutter"? Maybe they were closing the proverbial window against idiocy? But when a window closes, a door opens. Or how does that go again??

Actually, I wonder if "unfriend" is the proper term anyway. I think "defriend" is probably more accurate. Semantics, right?

Wow, I'm bored.

[TheraCaffe]

I thought the same thing.

[sanenazok]

Gawd the printing company that owns the dictionary company is trying to spell "relevancy" with web 2.0 lingo. Of course they'll target the under-20 demographic since these are the people who lack a vocabulary and still are required to use a dictionary. Nothing spells success for reference books like marketing to school kids.

ANYTHING of the year and "top ten lists" are cheap promotions and product of lazy marketers.

[SpeedPsycho]

Yet Gawd knows adding "unfriend" to the dictionary will not attract more readers by any measurable amount.

[TheraCaffe]

Only people who lack a vocabulary use a dictionary? What about the average user who just wants to look up an obscure word, or the hungry adolescent intent on expanding his existing vocabulary? How about you, sanenazok; how did you achieve your current vocabulary?

[sanenazok]

It's easy to build a vocabulary- read books. I'm speaking from personal experience here, I have not looked in a dictionary since middle school. Specialized reference books, yes, but not the Oxford dictionary.

The adding of terms like this promotes the dictionary, just look at the free press here.

[X-Country]

@Renegade Knight:

"adultification": Great new word!! I'll look for it in the 2010 edition... ;-)

[TigaAyes]

Johnson turns in his grave, while Spokeshave shudders, stutters and shutters himself away from this non-scents.

If one can unfriend and defriend then I assume once can enfriend.

[rdeal2]

Or "re-friend" assuming you re-establish a relationship with your "unfriend"...Facebook! If you're listening, you need to add a crap load of new buttons to your GUI!

[Mike Acker]

this stuff belongs in the internet slang notes

[sadchild]

is this oxford or sniglets? aside from Ardi, these are bunk.

http://bertc.com/subfour/truth/sniglets.htm

[Dust_Puppy]

Ye gods! They have broken the seventh seal!

RUN!!!!!

[kstraw]

And what was wrong with "befriend", "shun" and "reconcile"?

The need to invent "new" words is usually symptomatic of one of four drives:

1. I do not know the real word and so I'll make one up!

2. This is a new technology or discipline that genuinely needs its own descriptive terms or verbs.

3. I have just written a book about this old-hat technology or discipline. I need to make people thinks its new and so buy my book.

4. I feel that I am not special and so I invent new ways of saying the same old things to make me sound special.

Just because I am cynical doesn't make me less right!

[cgarrett]

Hate to be so pedantic, but the Whopper is not a cheeseburger. There is no cheese on a Whopper, unless you have it your way...

[nataliev39]

I feel like this announcement from Oxford is just reinforcing the technology wall that we have built around ourselves. The fact that "unfriend" is the word of the year shows just how much time we have all spent behind the computer making these so called "friends" or "unfriending" those we no longer want to show up in our news feed. I have read a lot of articles lately about people thinking the newer technologies such as Facebook, chats, texts, etc. are ruining the literacy of our children. I do not think this is the case. I think that this new word of the year just shows the new direction that our world is taking. We are evolving and that is good. The word itself is a little silly, but I think that what it represents is change and revolution.

[josijosina]

Now, can we talk about the second word of the year?