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Posts with tag: word-of-the-year | Return to the IWJ Homepage
New Oxford American Dictionary's Word of the Year is Unfriend
Oxford University Press announced that the New Oxford American Dictionary's Word of the Year for 2009 is unfriend. It is something that happens frequently on social networks like Facebook.
unfriend - verb - To remove someone as a 'friend' on a social networking site such as Facebook.
As in, "I decided to unfriend my roommate on Facebook after we had a fight."
"It has both currency and potential longevity," notes 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. Most "un-" prefixed words are adjectives (unacceptable, unpleasant), and there are certainly some familiar "un-" verbs (uncap, unpack), but "unfriend" is different from the norm. It assumes a verb sense of "friend" that is really not used (at least not since maybe the 17th century!). Unfriend has real lex-appeal."
If Twitter gets popular enough you have to wonder if they will consider "unfollow" in 2010. If you are on Twitter you can follow the IWJ on Twitter account, @iwj.
Posted on November 16, 2009
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American Dialect Society Names Subprime 2007's Word of the Year
The BBC reports that "Subprime" has been voted the word of the year for 2007 by linguists of the American Dialect Society. Most people are now familiar with the word that is at least partially responsible for sinking stocks this year.
The society says it just charts words or phrases that have become prominent in a particular year, and is not telling people how to speak.
"Subprime" means literally "less than ideal" and is the technical term used to describe loans - especially mortgages - made to borrowers with poor credit histories.
A series of defaults on such loans spread panic through much of the banking sector in 2007 as financial institutions realised they had bought many of these loans from one another without knowing how risky they were.
Some of the other interesting words used in 2007 included:
water-boarding - a form of interrogation involving simulated drowning
Facebook - a popular social networking website.
Googleganger - a person thrown up by a Google search on your name, but who is not you
Ninja - a poorly documented loan made to a high-risk borrower - someone with No Income, No Job or Assets
Wrap rage - anger brought on by the inability to open a factory-sealed package
Tapafication - the tendency of restaurants to serve food in many small portions, like tapas.
The American Dialect Society is not the only word-of-the-year selector. Earlier this year Merriam-Webster named w00t it's word of the year.
Posted on January 23, 2008
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