ENGLISH: 'SELFIE' Named The Word Of The Year 2013

"Selfie" has been named as word of the year by Oxford Dictionaries. Its frequency in the English language had increased by 17,000% in the last year, researchers said.

Selfie can be traced back to 2002 when it was used in an Australian online forum, according to Oxford Dictionaries. A man posted a picture of injuries to his face sustained when he tripped over some steps. He apologised for the fact that it was out of focus, saying that it was not because he was drunk but because it was a selfie.

This word has evolved from a niche social media tag into a mainstream term for a self-portrait photograph, the editors said.

''Selfie is defined by Oxford Dictionaries as "a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website".



Other 'contenders' were "twerk" - a raunchy dance move performed by Miley Cyrus; "binge-watch" - meaning watching lots of TV; and "schmeat" that stands for a form of meat synthetically produced from biological tissue.

The word of the year award celebrates the inventiveness of English speakers when confronted with social, political or technological change. To qualify, a word need not have been coined within the past 12 months, but it does need to have become prominent or notable in that time.
Its increase in use is calculated by Oxford Dictionaries using a research programme that collects around 150 million English words currently in use from around the web each month. This software can be used to track the emergence of new words and monitor changes in geography, register, and frequency of use.

British Prime Minister David Cameron                                                                                                                 takes a selfie with with Olympic                                                                                                                    volunteer Anita Akuwudike in London                                                                                                                  in August 2012 -PHOTO: AFP

This year, selfie has gained momentum throughout the English speaking world, helped by pictures such as one of the Pope with teenagers that went viral.
 "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," Judy Pearsall, editorial director for Oxford Dictionaries, explained.