The Rice University Neologisms Database

To electronically request that a college student or alum be added to one’s list of friends on one’s Facebook account. Students constantly receive friendship invites from other students and give friendship invites themselves. In order to concisely express the action of “requesting that someone be added to your list of friends,” students use the verb “facebook.” Numerous journalists writing articles about the Facebook phenomenon have also used “facebook” as a verb. The term “facebook” derives from an online directory called “The Facebook” launched by Harvard student Mark Zuckerburg on February 4th, 2004 (www.facebook.com). The word belongs to the slang of students (Today’s students being considered a substandard group by older condescending adults), mostly high schoolers, undergraduates and recent college alums, although older alums., faculty members, and administrators are technically allowed to have Facebook accounts. It derives from the compounding of its component morphemes “face” and “book” because it constitutes an online collection of people’s faces (Each Facebook account member is encouraged to post his or her picture online, and almost all account members do so).