Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. One not a friend; an enemy.
Wiktionary
- n. One who is not a friend; an enemy.
- v. rare To sever as friends.
- v. Internet To defriend; to remove from one's friends list (eg on a social networking website).
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. rare One not a friend; an enemy.
Etymologies
- From Middle English unfreond, onfrend, equivalent to un- + friend. Cognate with Scots unfrend ("unfriend"). Compare Old English unfriþmann, unwine. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“The contenders for 2009 Big Law Word of the Year are not as hip as Oxford's Word of the Year -- a nod to Facebook's influence, "unfriend" -- but who said Big Law was hip?”
“I think it's no coincidence, though, that to "unfriend" - essentially dropping a connection with someone made on Facebook - is the Oxford American Dictionary's 2009 Word of the Year as this decade of frenzied communication comes to a close.”
“The New Oxford American Dictionary named "unfriend" -- as in deleting someone as a friend on a social network such as Facebook -- its word of the year on Monday.”
“A bad break-up would also mean either of them, or both, would remove - 'unfriend' - the person from their list.”
“But will "unfriend" -- to remove someone as a "friend" on a social networking site -- find relevance beyond its online context as a verb, or will it be deleted along with passing technological trends?”
“unfriend" - meaning to "de-friend" someone on a social networking site such as Facebook - deserved the 2009 word of the year award.”
“(If you 'unfriend' someone who is in your clan, they will remain your clan member unless you remove them from your clan.)”
“Finally, "unfriend" becomes Oxford Dictionary's word of the year.”
Coffee Break: Teens and cellphones; Microsoft co-founder has cancer
“Twenty-five people a day would "unfriend" me for refusing to support Bush's war against Iraq or for condemning factory farming or for disapproving of disposable uranium-enriched diapers, or whatever.”
“CP+B created one Facebook promotion for Burger King, telling people if they would "unfriend" 10 of their friends, they'd get a free Whopper.”
Jerry Lewis: Better Times Ahead for Boulder Area Economy, Business Leaders Predict
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘unfriend’.
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• Suggestions for new Sailormoon attacks
Subtitle: Sounds complicated, kitch, and means nothing.
moon fluffy fibri..., venus free love i..., eternal not-tonig..., mercury sushi, japanese dubber l..., venus love-me coil, granted cheesy ha..., selamun crappy ch..., stardust allergy, high-fructose cor..., failed axis calib..., godless and rock-... and 412 more...
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Fruits of Linguistic Invention
bananosecond, fruitylicious, appled, kiwiclock, boomorange, damsonic, pearforate, graspberry, squince, datelier, caroberate, plumpire and 143 more...
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The Universal Calculator
Obviates the need for other devices or calculations--it will have a button for everything, and it will solve everything.
qwerty keyboard, shift key, control, home, end, pause, log, sin, space, enter, plus, numb and 241 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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The Buzz
The bang, the cannonade,
the bale, the hum.lab situation, media, startup, scientific, gameplay, social, intuitive, creative, collaborative, funding, non-governmental ..., consultant and 124 more...
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EN - newSPEAK
Buzzwords of our time
actionable, administrivia, advermation, agreeance, backbone provider, back-sourcing, baked in, bandwidth, barn raising, Barneyware, belly-buttons, Below Zeros and 1076 more...
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My Little Phonies
Names for the next generation of My Little Ponies. Inspired by Star's list.
juggernaught, flamboyant, cuddly maggot, astrobleme, agroof, windburn, poshlost, crucifer, feedbag, dunderwhelp, nebelwerfer, bliss ninny and 453 more...
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Words of the year 2009
As defined by the American Dialect Society, the best "word of the year" candidates will be:
—new or newly popular in 2009
—widely or prominently used in 2009
—indicative or...aporkalypse, athey, bonus tax, botax, car tone, Cash for Clunkers, Chimerica, cow tax, death panel, deather, Dracula sneeze, drive like a Cullen and 27 more...
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EN - unverbs
Funnily, 'un-VERBs' are much less common as stand-alone units than in suffixed derivatives (unbelievable - but *unbelieve, unexpectedly - but *unexpect, uninsured - but *uninsure, etc.) Can you fin...
unbox, unpack, unlike, unveil, unlink, uncover, unfold, undo, unamen, unadorn, unalign, unbound and 22 more...
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Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
grabbable, retuiteando, leaving, fantastic, absolutely, kurwa, hella, ridic, underpass, hate, interlude, plush and 2369 more... -
Digital Terms
Words come and go, perhaps nowhere faster than online. Some industry terms to stay current -- or to remember as they rest in peace.
tweet, cpm, crackberry, nofollow, brick-and-mortar, page view, double opt-in, opt-in, opt-out, mash-up, word of mouth, ctr and 200 more...
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Dictionary
dilettante, frostjack, perfunctory, impresario, paparazzi, pastiche, lollipop, Cymru, nub, bivouac, knapsack, hoodlum and 76 more...
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New Oxford American - 2009 Word of th...
Won by Unfriend
unfriend, hashtag, intexticated, netbook, paywall, sexting, freemium, funemployed, zombie bank, Ardi, birther, choice mom and 7 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for unfriend.
whichbe I've used it as a sarcastic threat to friends of mine. Nov 18, 2009
uselessness I use it. It's much more convenient than "remove X from my friends list." Nov 18, 2009
lampbane No one I know actually uses this word, so finding out it's the more common usage confuses me.
We are not normal people. Nov 18, 2009
bilby "The New Oxford American Dictionary has named unfriend - as in deleting someone as a friend on a social network such as Facebook - its word of the year. Oxford University Press USA, in a blog post, said unfriend, a verb, had beaten netbook, sexting, paywall, birther and death panel for the honour.
'Unfriend has real lex-appeal,' said Christine Lindberg, senior lexicographer for Oxford's US dictionary program. 'It has both currency and potential longevity,' she said. '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.'"
- AFP, Word of the year is ... unfriend, theage.com.au, 17 Nov 2009. Nov 17, 2009
whichbe Facebook Linguistics Jan 31, 2009