Oxford American Dictionary dubs 'unfriend' Word of the Year Blame social networking for the latest cutesy-pie neologism tapped as the New Oxford American Dictionary's 2009 Word of the Year: unfriend. Up against a range of tech-related buzzwords that included "netbook," "sexting," and "paywall," the North American verbal tome maker decided to celebrate the asocial side of online …
The NewSpeak Dictionary adds favowords speedwise, but why unfriend someone? Is (s)he a crimethinker? Or is (s)he guilty of sexcrime, such as the doubleplus ungood habit of procreating solowise?
So I ask again. Why unfriend these people? The government needs to know.
Please think of the children, there are criminals at large!
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This week only: report a neighbor double your ration. Get your coupons at MiniLuv now.
That must be an American term. Over here, they're called "Arse Antlers".
And BBC breakfast's female presenter this morning (Kate?) advised viewers that "If you have any comments on today's stories, please feel free to sext us your views" mush to the amusement of Bill who choked his way through his next line.
These are just recycled old words either with extra letters added at the beginning or end, or two old words mashed together. Don't get me wrong, they are quite fun and creative, but it would be nice to see occasionally a few completely new made up words, such as grimplestiple, for which I haven't decided on a meaning yet.
Years ago we sat in a kitchen moaning how all the new things had descriptions but not names - 'deep fat frier' and the like, so we decided to make at least one new one for something that didn't have a name.
So, you know that plastic bag filled with plastic bags? Everybody has one, under the sink or in a press in the kitchen somewhere, slowly getting bigger with all those free bags you will never reuse.
That's called a prock, but somehow it just never caught on.
I would maintain that the truly excellent term "Arse antlers" is a subset of "Tramp stamp",the latter being any tattoo sported by a slapper (skank for our colonial cousins), thus the Yankish term can describe the lower back tattoo, but the Old World term is more descriptive and indeed more amusing.
"I think a few people... need to find out the reason for a dictionary. It is not to tell you what words you should use, or how you should use them, or to use correct grammer, but to record current usage and the language as it stands today."
I think you'll also find a dictionary will show you the correct spelling for words, such as "grammar".
That's just now getting around? I heard that about seven or eight years ago. I also heard the term ASCAP applied to it, which I was really hoping would take off because of all the conotations that would make my musician friends laugh. Alas, 'twas not to be, and our grand language is ever so slightly poorer for it.
It's interesting that tramp stamp is just now getting in. It has been around in general use for more than 20 years. Netbook and hashtag are also somewhat understandable. I don't have great problems with unfriend, but I hate that it's a word of the year. It's also interesting that teabaggers is getting in along with birthers as political words. Birther is already pretty obsolete and the political meaning of teabagger will be forgotten soon as well. Teabagging will remain in usage for quite some time though...
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