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Ouch, it burns and it’s grammatically correct. One of the mothers of all dictionaries, the New Oxford American Dictionary, declared today the 2009 word of the year: unfriend. It is defined as:

To remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook.

Christine Lindberg, Senior Lexicographer for the Oxford US dictionary program, described the word’s “lex” appeal in today’s blog announcement. “Most ‘un-’ prefixed words are adjectives (unacceptable, unpleasant),” she wrote, “and there are certainly some familiar ‘un-’ verbs (uncap, unpack), but ‘unfriend’ is different from the norm. It assumes a verb sense of ‘friend’ that is really not used (at least not since maybe the 17th century!).”

Check out Oxford’s blog post to see some of the runner-ups. (Yes, they do include hashtag, sexting and tramp stamp, among others.)

Can we use unfriend in a sentence? Well, there’s lots more on social media.