'Unfriend' is US dictionary's 2009 word of the year

[November 17, 2009]  NEW YORK (AP) -- What word sums up 2009? How about "unfriend"?

That's the New Oxford American Dictionary's 2009 Word of the Year. It means to remove someone as a friend on a social networking Web site such as Facebook.

Each year Oxford University Press tracks how the English language is changing and chooses a word that best reflects the mood of the year.

Oxford lexicographer Christine Lindberg says unfriend has "real lex appeal."

Finalists for 2009 also included "netbook," which is a small laptop, and "sexting," which is sending sexually explicit texts and pictures by cell phone.

[Associated Press]

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