word of the year: unfriend?

Well, I kinda intended that our 2009 year in review would be the last post of the year but then I saw this today:  Oxford Word of the Year is “Unfriend”.  Now granted, this is the Oxford American Dictionary which is a little more liberal when it comes to including technology industry jargon but when you look at the other adds (”intexticated”, “sexting”, “funemployed”, “birther”) well it gets a bit much.  But to be fair, it is better than when Merriam-Webster crowned “w00t” its word of the year in 2007.

Now you may not know but I have a weakness for reading the dictionary.  And, in particular, I am an Oxford English Dictionary (”OED”), the definitive record of the English language, fanatic (yes, I have read the Professor and the Madman, and loved it!, and find it fascinating that one can still contribute to the dictionary today).

The OED is updated quarterly and, in the spirit of things, of the December 10th, 2009 submissions the only one that horrified me was Bridezilla.  Why?  Because the OED editorial policy “is to retain permanently any word entered into the Dictionary … we seek to maintain a high level of awareness of new and evolving language while reserving judgement about its durability“.  So Bridezilla has staying power? Yes I appreciate English is a living, evolving language but really?

On a funnier note, I was explaining the changes to the dictionary today to a friend and she let out a big sigh.  Yes!  I exclaimed.  The injustice!  Wherein she followed with: I don’t care about that it just makes Scrabble with my mother that much harder …  Hah!