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"Unfriend" has been named the word of the year by the New Oxford American Dictionary. It was 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 site such as Facebook.

"It has both currency and potential longevity," said Christine Lindberg, senior lexicographer for Oxford's US dictionary program, in a statement.

"In the 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."

Other words deemed finalists for 2009 by the dictionary's publisher, Britain's Oxford University Press, came from technological 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 tagged; "intexticated" for when people are distracted by texting while driving, and "sexting", which is the sending of sexually explicit SMSes and pictures by cellphone.

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

In the political and current affairs section, finalists included "birther", meaning conspiracy theorists challenging President Barack Obama's US birth certificate, and "choice mom", a person who chooses to be a single mother. Novelty words making the shortlist were "deleb", meaning a dead celebrity, and "tramp stamp", referring to a tattoo on the lower back, usually on a woman.

Previous words of the year include carbon neutral, locavore and hypermiling. Locavores are people who eat locally grown food while hypermilers modify their cars and driving techniques to maximize gas mileage.

Questions:

1. Where is the word “unfriend” used?

2. What is the word for when people are distracted by texting while driving?

3. What is a “l(fā)ocavore”?

Answers:

1. On a social networking site such as Facebook.

2. "Intexticated".

3. Someone who eats locally grown food.

（英語點津 Julie編輯）

About the broadcaster:

Nancy Matos is a foreign expert at China Daily Website. Born and raised in Vancouver, Canada, Nancy is a graduate of the Broadcast Journalism and Media program at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. Her journalism career in broadcast and print has taken her around the world from New York to Portugal and now Beijing. Nancy is happy to make the move to China and join the China Daily team.