US: 'Unfriend' is New Oxford's word of the year

'Birther' was in the running and so was 'death panels', but in the end the New Oxford American Dictionary can only pick one word of the year. For 2009, it is 'unfriend', says Oxford University Press.

Or in New Oxfordspeak: "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 programme. "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."
Full report on the USA Today site