Oh, no - latest 'Word of the Year'! . . .

According to the new Oxford American Dictionary the latest newly-coined word which has been named 'Word of the Year' for 2009 is unfriend. Its meaning, according to the dictionary, is to remove someone as a friend from a social networking site such as Facebook.

Here are some of the other finalists for 'Word of the Year';

"intexicated" the state of being distracted while driving because of sending a text message.

"zombie bank" a financial institution still operating even though its liabilities are greater than its assets.

"birther" which Oxford describes as "a conspiracy theorist who challenges President Obama's U.S. birth certificate."

Oxford's word last year was "hypermiling" the act of conserving petrol by making fuel-saving changes to one's car and driving habits.

If you'd like to be appalled further, or simply amused, you can read the full article here.

One of my pet peeves about new words that have evolved recently is the way that we seem to have had a sudden influx of new verbs which were previously nouns. For example, sporting heroes don't win a medal, they 'medal' in their chosen sport; you don't travel by train, you 'train' it. I think I'll invent a new word to describe it, 'verbify'! I really don't like the way some people verbify words which have always been used as nouns to create new verbs. Mind you, verbify is probably not a new word, after all. I expect it's been in the dictionary for ages :-)