Unfriend Officially Added to Dictionary
The New Oxford American Dictionary has officially added unfriend as a verb meaning “to remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook”. I know it’s easier to write and say, “I unfriended Bob” than “I removed Bob as a friend”, but I just find this a little creepy and “Orwellian”. Soon we will be untalking, unlaughing, and unsurprised.
I think I like unlaughing.
I just read another blog post about unfriend being added to the dictionary. I wondered why saying ‘I will remove you as a friend’ had become too hard and we simply say ‘I will unfriend you’. It is very 1984 but at the same time, language does change and this change isn’t being thrust upon us from above, this is being adopted and used by people and only finally being formally acknowledged.
Cassandra Jade
November 17, 2009 at 6:25 pm
I also enjoyed this debate of unfriend vs defriend. http://tjmahr.com/post/247457416
jaycruz
November 17, 2009 at 10:06 pm