Word of the Year

It is no secret that I love words and language, so it shouldn't be all that surprising that I am a little bit stoked about the New Oxford Dictionary Word of the Year. The word? Oh, a direct result of Facebook, it is 'unfriend'.

Unfriend is a verb meaning: "To remove someone as a 'friend' on a social networking site such as Facebook." I love the idea that new words are always making their way into our lexicon. In fact, my class just recently finished the book Frindle, by Andrew Clements. That novel, written for elementary school age kids, aptly illustrates the power of words and the fluidity of our language.

According to Clements, it takes approximately ten years before a new word makes its way into the dictionary. In the past few years words such as bootylicious, mcjob, evoo, and comb-over have all been added to the dictionary. Some of those words seem out-dated before the dictionary is even off of the printing press (here… printing press – how old school does THAT sound?).

The word unfriend probably isn't the kindest word; it doesn't conjure up great feelings. In fact, there is already an online debate about its use versus the use of the word defriend. Any way you look at it though, it seems appropriate that this year's word of the year is a reference to modern technology.