OED Word of the Year: ‘selfie’

“Selfie” beats “bitcoin,” “olinguito,” “twerk” and “schmeat,” say Oxford English Dictionary editors. 2013’s word of the year, ‘selfie’ refers to “a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website.” The mid-to-late noughties’ MySpace era cemented the word’s significance to social network users, but the OED committee noted that 2013 saw a 17,000% increase in the use of the word. “The earliest evidence that we know of at the moment is Australian,” said dictionary editor Katherine Martin, adding that the word’s construction “fits in with a tendency in Australian English to make cute, slangy words with that ‘ie’ ending.”

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