“Break” - the main word of 2009

The editors of the Oxford Dictionary defined the word for 2009 : the verb “to unfriend” (“to unfriend”), which means “to remove someone from the list of friends on the social networking site”. This word is also unique in that the verb “to friend” in English has not been used since at least the 17th century.

As you can see, here the Russian language is richer: we have “make friends”, although in the context of social networks it is more often used to “give out”. People feel that “friend” and “friend” are different concepts.

The title “words of the year” is claimed by new words that have sharply entered the commonly used lexicon. This year, the word “ twitter ” was added to the dictionaries, in 2006 - the word “ google ”, previously this title was given to the words “podcasting” (2005) and “blog” (2004).

Among the contenders for the word of the year, according to the Oxford dictionary, were also considered “hashtag”, “netbook” and a few more words that require explanation for non-native speakers:
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Freemium ( freemium ) is a business model based on free content;

“Death committee” ( death panel ) is a theoretical body that decides which people deserve life if the aid is limited (for example, there are a limited number of donor organs), the term has clearly medical motives known from the Dr. House series;

Ardi ( Ardi ) - (Ardipithecus ramidus) is the oldest hominid discovered in Ethiopia and presented to the public in 2009;

funemployed - an abbreviated employee who gets pleasure from his new status;

Zombie Bank - a financial institution whose debts exceed assets, but continues to work thanks to government assistance.

tramp stamp - tattoo in the lower back, usually in women.

All this is relatively new phenomena that have become relevant in the past year. In general, they convey a good spirit of the times. It is also interesting that in recent months, 31 new words have been added to the dictionary, derived from the root “twitter” or “obama”.