Lexicographers at the New Oxford English Dictionary have announced their Word of the Year for 2009!  Alright, it isn't really technology related news per se, so we should probably not be reporting it here.  Still, the 2009 Word of the Year was inspired by technology and its use and, tenuous or not, that's all the relationship we need.

So, without further ado, the 2009 Word of the Year is ... unfriend.  Denizens of social networking sites will recognize this new verb as the act of removing someone from your contacts list, as in "His last message was so rude that I decided to unfriend him."  Other words in contention for the award included "intexticated," "hashtag," "sexting," "netbook," "deleb," "tramp stamp," and "freemium" among others.

For more on the selection of this year's word, go to the Oxford University Press blog here.  As Winston Smith might say, "Double plus good. Plus concise."