"Unfriend" has been named the word of the year by the New Oxford¹ American Dictionary, chosen from a list of finalists with a tech-savvy bent².

日前，unfriend一词从众多技术词汇中脱颖而出，被《新牛津美语辞典》评为2009年度潮词。

An undated file photo shows two girls discuss in front of a laptop."Unfriend" has been named the word of the year by the New Oxford American Dictionary, chosen from a list of finalists with a tech-savvy bent.

Unfriend was defined as a verb that means to remove someone as a "friend" on a social networking side such as Facebook.

"It has both currency and potential longevity（潜在寿命）," said Christine Lindberg, senior lexicographer³（词典编纂者） for Oxford's US dictionary program, in a statement.

"In the online social networking context, its meaning is understood, so its adoption⁴ as a modern verb form makes this an interesting choice for Word of the Year."

Other words deemed（被视为） finalists for 2009 by the dictionary's publisher, Britain's Oxford University Press, came from other technological⁵ trends, the economy, and political and current affairs.

In technology, there was "hashtag", which is the hash sign added to a word or phrase that lets Twitter users search for tweets similarly taged; "intexticated" for when people are distracted by texting while driving, and "sexting", which is the sending of sexually explicit⁶（明确的，详述的） SMSes and pictures by cellphone.

Finalists from the economy included "freemium（自由增值）", meaning a business model in which some basic services are provided for free, and "funemployed", referring to people taking advantage of newly unemployed⁷ status to have fun or pursue other interests.

In the political and current affairs section, finalists included "birther", meaning conspiracy⁸ theorists challenging President Barack Obama's US birth certificate, and "choice mom", a person who chooses to be a single mother.

Novelty（新奇，新鲜） words making the shortlist were "deleb", meaning a dead celebrity⁹, and "tramp stamp", referring to a tattoo¹⁰（纹身） on the lower back, usually on a woman.