Narcissism in a picture pretty much sums up the word “selfie.”
The word – and all those dang on images – have been everywhere in 2013, it seems. And now that many of us carry cell phones it’s difficult to find anyone with any online dealings who did not take one, 15 or even 100 selfies. In fact, rare is the Twitter bird who does not post his on image in that tiny birdie box.
The editors over at the Oxford Dictionaries say the selection of selfie as “the word” was a unanimous decision and, “if it is good enough for the Obamas or the Pope, then it is good enough for Word of the Year.” Interestingly, it’s not a new word, having first come into our public consciousness in 2002. Of course those same editors actually found the initial post and here it is:
2002 ABC Online (forum posting) 13 Sept.
“Um, 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. I had a hole about 1cm long right through my bottom lip. And sorry about the focus, it was a selfie.”
The editors over there also found that selfie is apparently giving rise to other words, including welfie (workout selfie) and drelfie (drunken selfie.) Runners up to Word of the Year also included twerk.
Now you know.
— Adrienne Samuels Gibbs