Sick of selfies? Blame the Aussies
- A roundup of global news
An Australian university student was hardly angling for global fame as a wordsmith when he took a boozy nosedive during a friend鈥檚 birthday bash 11 years ago. But the word he coined for the self-taken snapshot documenting the result of his fall has today as the Oxford Dictionaries international word of the year for 2013.聽
That word is 鈥渟elfie,鈥� and as 鈥渁 photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website.鈥澛�
That鈥檚 exactly what the Australian university student did in September 2002. While recovering from his hospital visit, he pointed a phone camera at the wounded bottom half of his face and took a picture. Then he logged in to Australia鈥檚 ABC forum under the username 鈥淗opey鈥� and uploaded it for the world to see.
鈥淯m, drunk at a mates 21st, I tripped ofer [sic] and landed lip first (with front teeth coming a very close second) on a set of steps,鈥澛爃e . 鈥淚 had a hole about 1cm long right through my bottom lip. And sorry about the focus, it was a selfie.鈥澛�
And that, according to the , marked the word鈥檚 earliest recorded usage. The real person behind 鈥淗opey鈥� has yet to claim the limelight, and Australian media have already for him.
The term was slow to take off, the Oxford Dictionaries said. It popped up again on an Australian personal blog in 2003, then flickered in and out of discussions on social media sites like Flikr and MySpace. And then its usage shot through the stratosphere, as it came to define cultural phenomena, from to debates about the modern era鈥檚 .
This made selfie the 鈥渞unaway winner鈥� for 2013, Oxford Dictionaries鈥� statement :
The decision was unanimous this year, with little if any argument. This is a little unusual. Normally there will be some good-natured debate as one person might champion their particular choice over someone else鈥檚. But this time, everyone seemed to be in agreement almost from the start.聽
Our Word of the Year need not be a new word. However, it does need to demonstrate some kind of聽prominence聽over the preceding year or so and聽selfie聽certainly fits the bill. It seems like everyone who is anyone has posted a聽selfie聽somewhere on the Internet. If it is good enough for聽听辞谤听, then it is good enough for Word of the Year.
The recognition of the word鈥檚 Australian origins was front and center in the official imprimatur. 鈥淭he earliest evidence that we know of at the moment is Australian,鈥� . 鈥淎nd it fits in with a tendency in Australian English to make cute, slangy words with that 'ie' ending.鈥�
In that way, the word calls to mind other Australian diminutives such as 鈥渢innie鈥� for a can of beer, 鈥渂arbie鈥� for barbeque, and 鈥渇irie鈥� for a firefighter.
There's also now a slew of linguistic spinoffs from the ubiquitous term itself. Just a few are 鈥渉elfie鈥� (a snapshot of one鈥檚 hair), 鈥渂elfie鈥� (a photo of one鈥檚 behind), 鈥渨elfie鈥� (a gym workout shot) and even a 鈥渄relfie鈥� (a drunken selfie).
The word鈥檚 fame has yet to translate into inclusion in the definitive Oxford English Dictionary, though it鈥檚 under consideration, . But it was welcomed into the common-usage alongside other top performers that included 鈥渂adassery,鈥� 鈥渂uzzworthy,鈥� and 鈥渢werk.鈥�
Not everyone is celebrating the term鈥檚 victory, however. As one fan of this year鈥檚 second most famous entry lamented on Time.com, 鈥�!鈥� 聽
