In a move which reflects the increasing impact of the social networking on the vocabulary and origin of new words, the word “unfriend” has been chosen by the New Oxford American Dictionary as ‘the Word of the Year’ for 2009!

Going by a definition put forth on the official blog of Oxford University Press USA, the word “unfriend” is a verb which means “to remove somebody as a ‘friend’ from a social networking site like Facebook.”

The word “unfriend” was selected from a list of some other words which the publisher of the dictionary - Britain’s Oxford University Press - had short-listed from the technological, economic, and political and current affairs’ arena.

The technology-related words under consideration included “hashtag” - for the addition of the hash sign to a word or phrase that allows Twitter users search for similarly-tagged tweets; “intexticated” – to describe the condition of texting-distracted drivers; and “sexting” – for describing the sending of sexually-explicit SMSes and pictures via mobile phones.

From the economic scenario, the words that were short-listed were “freemium” – for a business model wherein some free basic services are provided; and “funemployed” – to describe people using their newly-unemployed status to have fun or pursue other interests.

Finalist words from the political and current affairs section included “birther” – to describe conspiracy theorists challenging the US birth certificate of President Barack Obama; and “choice mom” – for a woman choosing to be a single mother.