Word of the Year Announced; 'Selfie' Crowned
The 2013 Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year was crowned as "selfie" in an announcement this week.
With today's social media outlets gaining more popularity with each passing day, it has become popular to take a photo of oneself and post it to websites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Consequently, Oxford Dictionaries said that the word "selfie" was unanimously voted the winner of the Word of the Year.
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The technical definition of "selfie" reads "a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website."
Selfies are popular with even celebrities such as Heidi Klum, and as a result, the word won out this year's voters.
"If it is good enough for the Obamas or The Pope, then it is good enough for Word of the Year," Oxford Dictionaries said.
Oxford Dictionaries went on to point at some popular offshoots of the word "selfie," including "legsie," a photo taken of one's legs before a scenic background.
Meanwhile, the runner-up of the 2013 Word of the Day was popularized by Miley Cyrus- "twerking." Other contenders included "KimYe" referring to Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, and "cronut," the pastry comprised of a cross between a doughnut and a croissant.
Online readers have voiced reactions to the Word of the Year, including some who celebrated that "twerking" was not the winner.
"Oy vey," wrote Facebook user Christa. "Well at least it wasn't twerking, right?"
A user on Twitter wrote, "Narcissism? Too hard to spell. Selfie? Just right. It's the word of the year."
Last year's Word of the Day was also media related; "gif," a verb, short for graphics interchange format. The term means, "to create a gif file (an image or video sequence) especially relating to an event."
Other 2012 Word of the Year runners up included "self-deportation" and "pink slime."
