Mathilde's posterous

Tranches de vie d'une parisienne avertie

« Back to blog

Facebook, Twitter add new words to dictionary - Daily Business Update - The Boston Globe

Wordsmiths and fans of the action verb might want to get a load of this: "Unfriend" is the New Oxford American Dictionary's 2009 Word of the Year, the dictionary's publisher, Oxford University Press, said in a press release.

According to the dictionary folks, "unfriend" is a verb that means 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."

A glance at the Oxford press release suggests that the lexicon is getting a real-time infusion from social networking and other new technical advances.

Among other words that the New Oxford American Dictionary considered as candidates for the 2009 Word of the Year was hashtag, which the Oxford folks define as a sign added to a word or phrase that enables Twitter users to search for tweets that contain similarly tagged items.

Then there's "intexticated," a distracted state of mind that results from texting on a cellphone while driving, Oxford said.

And don't forget "sexting," the act of "sending of sexually explicit texts and pictures by cellphone."

Presumably, sexting would be grounds for unfriending louts and other low-minded types who insist on so overloading a chaste Facebook type with smutty pics and prose that said Facebook type becomes intexticated. (Globe Staff)


via @MichelleBlanc