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Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Word of the Year 2013

According to CNN, "The most esteemed guardian of the English language has bestowed a prestigious honor upon debatably the most embarrassing phenomenon of the digital age: the selfie."

selfie noun, informal (also selfy; plural selfies): "a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website"

Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2013 was named yesterday -- selfie. "The Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year is a word or expression that has attracted a great deal of interest during the year to date. Language research conducted by Oxford Dictionaries editors reveals that the frequency of the word selfie in the English language has increased by 17,000% since this time last year."

3 comments:

Will Fitzgerald said...

CNN misunderstands the Oxford dictionary; it doesn't consider itself a 'guardian' of the language, but a recorder of word use.

R. L. Vaughn said...

Yes, I agree that is a misrepresentation, but I thought it might be provocative enough to get readers to click on the links.

I found it interesting that a word I had never heard until a month or two ago is the word of the year. I guess I don't run in selfie circles.

R. L. Vaughn said...

Those interested in the role of the OED might find this article interesting.