Friday, November 20, 2009

Living in "Unfriending" Times

"Teabagger" came close. "Sexting" was in the running. Even "Birther" got a nomination. But when all the votes were counted, "Unfriend" proved the victor. The New American Oxford Dictionary unveiled its 2009 Word of the Year earlier this week and the newly coined word associated with social networking is the one that has the most"currency and potential longevity," according to Christine Lindberg, Oxford's senior lexicographer.

Listed as a verb, "Unfriend" is described as "To remove someone as a friend on a social networking site like facebook or MySpace. ex: I decided to unfriend my boss right after he fired me.

Other nominees included: "Funemployed": taking time to pursue other interests after losing a job.

"Freemium": Business model in which basic services are free with the aim of luring folks to pay for premium goods and services.

"Zombie Banks": financial institutions with debts outweighing assets, but kept afloat thanks to government bail-outs.

"Paywall": A way of blocking access to part of website, Another way to entice paying subscribers, Funny, I always thought a paywall was where all my virtual payments for my online wit and wisdom was sent. Guess, I don't have access to it. That explains a lot.

A couple of my favs:

"Tramp Stamp": this one's been around a few years. So I guess it's this year's honorary country music nominee ( you know they always seem to nominate someone who's been around for years as the "new voice". Like Darius Ruker... love him and that was a great album, but c'mon, after fronting Hootie for close to two decades, how can he be new?) Sorry for the digression. The tramp stamp, you know, right, is that fetching tattoo, usually on the lower back, and usually sported by women.

"Deleb": Dead celebrity. Think a dead celeb who makes big bucks should be called a "Red Deleb".... as in the red....

Oh, well, it's all word salad anyway. Indulge in the ones you find funny or useful. Toss the rest in the snail mail pail. Wasn't that term for a traditional garbage bin, a nominee in 2000? Maybe I just made it up. Go ahead, look it up.

Drive safe. Play nice. Think peace

aba

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Holy Comoly! Soon we are going to need a New Language and interpreters. This is really something! In our local school, we just had a ceremony 'burying' words that are used too often. "Death of Words" like fun, said, do, etc. Tombstones, a service and all buried them. This was to have the students use other words in lieu of the usual suspect. Another good article - Winifred