WOTY: polyanthroponemia vs. unfriend
Can it be? Yes it can. It's time to announce the WOTY (Word-Of-The-Year). And early into the breech with its choice — "unfriend" — is the New Oxford American Dictionary.
The verb means to remove someone as a "friend" on a social networking site such as Facebook. Example: "I decided to unfriend my boss after we had a fight." Christine Lindberg, Senior Lexicographer at the New Oxford American Dictionary, said the word was picked because "it has both currency and potential longevity." And she added:
"In the online social networking context, its meaning is understood, so its adoption as a modern verb form makes this an interesting choice for Word of the Year. Most 'un-' prefixed words are adjectives (unacceptable, unpleasant), and there are certainly some familiar 'un-' verbs (uncap, unpack), but 'unfriend' is different from the norm. It assumes a verb sense of 'friend' that is really not used (at least not since maybe the 17th century!)."
Among the other words considered for the gong: "hashtag," "funemployed" and "teabagger". Rainy Day's favourite word of 2009 so far? A coinage by the British scientist James Lovelock: "polyanthroponemia". It's the situation in which humans (over)populate the earth "until they do more harm than good." As Lovelock explains in his latest book, The Vanishing Face of Gaia: "The presence of seven billion people aiming for first-world comforts...is clearly incompatible with the homeostasis of climate but also with chemistry, biological diversity and the economy of the system."
Wonder if Lovelock is on Facebook? Hold on just a minute...
