To unfriend or defriend?
Posted on November 20th, 2009by Michelle
In English, Events, Words | 2 Comments »
I do love announcements of new words, especially when they cause a debate.
The New Oxford American Dictionary has pronounced ‘unfriend’ its 2009 Word of the Year. All well and good… except I, along with many others, thought the term was ‘defriend’.
The official definition: unfriend – verb – To remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook.
Whilst I agree with the definition, I prefer ‘defriend’ – it rolls off the tongue better, don’t you think? And it sounds nicer – unfriend is short for unfriendly after all.
I’m not alone in preferring ‘defriend’ – New York Magazine agrees with me, and even went so far as to ask Facebook which term they prefer (they don’t mind).
Do you prefer to unfriend or defriend?
2 Responses
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