The New Oxford American Dictionary has named the word unfriend as its word of the year. It has beaten other finalists such as hashtag, intexticated, sexting and funemployed to win the title. If you are confused as to the meanings of any of these words there are explanations here. I find it interesting that most of them are only likely to be used by regular users of social networking sites and probably not in everyday language.

I am frequently frustrated when I come across people who fail to understand the difference between loose and lose so found this article particularly interesting. Its worth reading the whole article but amongst other things it points out:
“A bet you're unlikely to win is a losing proposition. If you're playing Scrabble and your opponent is winning, that means you're losing. You're not loosing. No matter how lopsided the score, you can take comfort from the fact that you're never, ever loosing a game--unless the board is stuck in a tree branch after a tornado and you're knocking it loose.”

Personally I can’t understand how people manage to confuse two words with completely different meanings, it only take a moment to read the sentence and its easy to see the correct word to use in each case. I do, however, take comfort in the fact that there are other people out there who find this just as irritating as I do.

Collins will drop some little used words from the next edition of its paper dictionary according to this article. The compilers of the dictionary have decided that some words are are rarely used and are rather obscure will need to be dropped from the next edition of the its dictionary in order to make room for modern additions. The list includes 24 words that Collins are proposing should be dropped. There is hope however, if you feel they are wrong. If evidence of their popularity emerges before February some of the words could be saved. Some of the words and their definations are listed below. So if you feel strongly about any of the following words you might want to start using them a little more.

Abstergent Cleansing or scouring
Agrestic Rural; rustic; unpolished; uncouth
Apodeictic Unquestionably true by virtue of demonstration
Caducity Perishableness; senility
Caliginosity Dimness; darkness
Compossible Possible in coexistence with something else
Embrangle To confuse or entangle
Exuviate To shed (a skin or similar outer covering)
Fatidical Prophetic
Fubsy Short and stout; squat
Griseous Streaked or mixed with grey; somewhat grey
Malison A curse
Mansuetude Gentleness or mildness
Muliebrity The condition of being a woman
Niddering Cowardly
Nitid Bright; glistening
Olid Foul-smelling
Oppugnant Combative, antagonistic or contrary
Periapt A charm or amulet
Recrement Waste matter; refuse; dross
Roborant Tending to fortify or increase strength
Skirr A whirring or grating sound, as of the wings of birds in flight
Vaticinate To foretell; prophesy
Vilipend To treat or regard with contempt

Apparently it is no longer acceptable to have a brainstorming session, instead you should have a thought shower. That's according to Tunbridge Wells Borough Council which has suggested staff stop using the term in case it offends epileptics. Its the first time I have come across the term thought shower, it seems to be one those very pointless office terms that exists just to irritate. It certainly irritates my husband so I will use it frequently.

An interesting article on Quasi Fictional about the word "geek". The article looks at the origins of the word and asks why we use the term "geek girl" but not "geek boy". On reading the article I have concluded that sadly I must be a geek.