In a very close battle against “birther” and “death panels,” “unfriend” emerged victorious and took home New Oxford Dictionary’s 2009 Word of the Year.

In New Oxfordspeak, “unfriend” is a verb which means “to remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook.” As in, “I had to unfriend my co-worker because of his spam messages on my wall.”

Senior Lexicographer for Oxford’s U.S. dictionary, Christine Lindberg, said the word has “both currency and potential longevity.”

“In 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,” she said.

Lindberg explained that the use of “un” in “unfriend” is different from the norm, and the “friend” in this case assumes a verb sense.  ”‘Unfriend’ has real lex-appeal,” she noted.

The two other finalists, “birther” and “death panels,” refer to “a conspiracy theorist who questions President Obama’s birth certificate” and “theoretical groups that determine which patients deserve to live, when care is rationed,” respectively.