You could argue that "unfriend" is a great choice because this word has been around for centuries. The term can be traced back to 1659 when it was first included in the dictionary. Christine Lindberg, senior lexicographer of U.S. dictionaries for Oxford University Press, in a CRM Daily story said "It is a very old word that has been adopted by a new generation..." "Now it has a very explicit designation as a verb used for social networking." Lindberg further supports the choice by saying "Unfriend represents an entire social-networking culture."
The New Oxford American Dictionary defines unfriend as:
(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."
On the other hand, blogger Angie Pascale, a communications specialist at Location3 Media, Inc. bemoans the choice of "unfriend" as Word of the Year in her post on expertSEM blog. Angie believes the word does not represent an entire culture but rather is specific to Facebook. Besides, she says, it should be defriend, not unfriend!
Decide for yourself on the merits of this Word of the Year but like it or not... unfriend is the "it word" of 2009!
(by Leslie Hassett, Adjunct Librarian, Olympic College)
(by Leslie Hassett, Adjunct Librarian, Olympic College)
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Thanks for mentioning my blog post! I don't like it, but I'm slowly coming to terms with "unfriend." I will admit, considering "sexting," "teabagger," "tramp stamp" and most of the other runners up, it's the lesser of all the evils.
ReplyDelete-Angie Pascale