Are you a friend or . . .?

(CNN) -- It's prone to cause drama in the online world.

And, according to the New Oxford American Dictionary, it's the word of the year.

"Unfriend" beat out a tech-heavy field that included "netbook," "hashtag" and "sexting" to take the annual honor.

"It has both currency and potential longevity," said Christine Lindberg, a language researcher for Oxford's U.S. dictionary program. "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."

Oxford defines "unfriend," a verb, thusly: "To remove someone as a 'friend' on a social networking site such as Facebook."

Every year, Oxford tracks how the English language is changing. Researchers debate the merits of newly birthed terms and choose their word of the year "to reflect the ethos of the year and its lasting potential as a word of cultural significance and use."


http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/11/17/unfriend.word/index.html?eref=igoogle_cnn


I just wonder if it's permissible to use the word as a noun?