It used to be that not getting invited to the coolest party was the deepest shun one could experience. But things have changed.
Now that a good chunk of modern socializing is done online, it’s the dreaded “unfriend” that people fear most. Such as, “I had to unfriend him after that date.”
It’s the equivalent of breaking up with someone in the Facebook or other social media worlds.
The official definition is: “To remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site, such as Facebook.”
So dreaded, in fact, that the New Oxford American Dictionary has named “unfriend” the 2009 Word of the Year.
The announcement was made on the Oxford University blog, where they also list other words that almost made the cut.