Weekly Vocab Builder

Could your writing use some oomph? Try using one of these words this week:

• statusphere: the realm of status updates on the Web through different platforms and networking sites
• delineate: to mark out in words
• twitturgy: tweeting about religion
• mussitation: mumbling or muttering
• carve-out: a partial spinoff of a child company from the parent company
• ovigerous: egg-bearing
• lexpionage: discovering new words and phrases
• lackadaisical: languid; lazy
• mooncalf: fool; freak

And did you hear? The New Oxford American Dictionary has announced its Word of the Year: unfriend. Says Christine Lindberg, senior lexicographer for the dictionary:

It has both currency and potential longevity. 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. Most un- prefixed words are adjectives (unacceptable, unpleasant), 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!). Unfriend has real lex-appeal.

Check out this year's runners-up as well at OUP's site (hashtag appeared earlier on one of my Wordnik lists). And follow me on Twitter to get the vocabulary word of the day. Maybe one of the words I cover will be next year's Word of the Year!