Two debate have broken out in the comment thread of the Oxford University Press blog where the lexicographers have announced their Word of the Year:  “Unfriend”

unfriend – verb – To remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook. As in, “I decided to unfriend my roommate on Facebook after we had a fight.”

But should that be “defriend”? I’ve heard both and am slightly partial to “defriend” perhaps because I’m the sort of person who prefers “disinvite” to “uninvite.”

The word mavens are also fussing about Oxford’s inclusion on its list of runners up of “teabagger” –

a person, who protests President Obama’s tax policies and stimulus package, often through local demonstrations known as “Tea Party” protests (in allusion to the Boston Tea Party of 1773)

Once those who attend and/or endorse Tea Party protests learned that this word is slang for a sex act, they disavowed it and began raging splenetically at those who continued to use it

 The “teabagger”/”teabagging” terminology is a vulgar smear of the Tea Party movement  …Either Oxford University Press approves of this language or its editors and staff are completely ignorant.

Neither option reflects well on the institution.

People who make a living in words should really get a clue about the words they purport to define for the rest of the world..…Michelle Malkin

Your view on these controversies:

Do you say “defriend” or “unfriend”?(opinion)

To call a particiant in a “Tea Party” protest a “teabagger” is(polls)