1286- Oxford’s thumbs up to ‘selfie’

“Selfie” is the 2013 word of the year, Oxford Dictionaries announced on Tuesday, edging out some stiff competition from “twerk”.

Usage of the word has increased 17,000 per cent over the past 12 months, said Oxford Dictionaries, which publishes the mammoth Oxford English Dictionary (OED), styled as the definitive record of the English language.

“Selfie” is defined as “a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website”.

In 2013, it evolved from a social media buzzword to mainstream shorthand for a self-portrait photo.

Judy Pearsall, editorial director for Oxford Dictionaries, said their language research programme collects around 150 million words of current English in use each month.

“We can see a phenomenal upward trend in the use of selfie in 2013, and this helped to cement its selection as word of the year,” she said.

The research found that the frequency of the word “selfie” in the English language increased by 17,000 per cent since this time last year.

The earliest known usage of the word was traced to an Australian online forum post in September 2002.

Mr. Pearsall said: “Social media sites helped to popularise the term, with the hashtag selfie appearing on the photo-sharing website Flickr as early as 2004, but usage wasn’t widespread until around 2012, when selfie was being used commonly in mainstream media sources.

“The use of the diminutive -ie suffix is notable, as it helps to turn an essentially narcissistic enterprise into something rather more endearing.”

She added: “Australian English has something of a penchant for -ie words — barbie for barbecue, firie for firefighter, tinnie for a can of beer — so this helps to support the evidence for selfie having originated in Australia.”

Selfie is not in the OED but the multi-volume dictionary is currently considering the term for inclusion.

The other words on the shortlist for word of the year were: bedroom tax (opponents’ term for a British welfare policy change); binge-watch (watching multiple television episodes in succession); bitcoin (a digital currency); olinguito (South American mammal); schmeat (synthetic meat); showrooming (looking at items in shops then buying online) and twerk.

The verb to twerk was described as to “dance to popular music in a sexually provocative manner involving thrusting hip movements and a low, squatting stance”. Twerking rocketed to fame when U.S. performer Miley Cyrus did the dance at the MTV video music awards in August.

—AFP

(The Hindu, 20:11:2013)
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