This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2009, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
NEW YORK » 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.
