The eNotes Blog And the Oxford Word of the Year isSelfie

And the Oxford Word of the Year isSelfie Must. Remind. Self..   The OED is not an arbiter of, but a chronicler of,   English language use. Every year, the Powers-That-Be lean over the windowsills located high atop their Ivory Towers and cock an ear towards the milling crowds below. When they hear a word they do not recognize being shouted often enough, they dip their quills into wells of octopus ink and inscribe that word on gold-rimmed parchment. Okay, not really.   Actually, its only been since 2004 that Oxford has selected a word of the year at all. Judy Pearsall, editorial director at Oxford, explains that a language usage program collects around 150m words of current English in use each month.   The word in 2013 that has become the most frequent was selfie. According to  The Guardian,   The word can be  traced back to a post on an Australian online forum in 2002: 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. So now we can blame Australia for both Crocodile Dundee  and  the word selfie! (Just kidding, mates!)   It is pretty incredible when you see the rise in usage in chart form: Curious what other words made the shortlist? They are: binge-watch (I just binge-watched the entire first season of  Orange is the New Black  in a single day!) bitcoin   (You can try to explain how bitcoin works to me a million times and I will never understand it.) bedroom tax (A lot less sexy than it sounds.) olinguito Seriously.. This is an  olinguito schmeat   (Dale!   Can you make me another schmeat sammich?) You dont want to know.   You clicked it,  didnt you showrooming   (Best Buy employee:   Can I help you? / Literally Everyone: No, thank you.just showrooming.) twerk (Ma! Call the vet!   Either the dogs sick or hes been watchin Miley videos again!) Yes, all worthy contenders.   But none outshone our navel-gazing, this time, quite literally.   As for myself, this is how I take selfies: *takes 50 selfies* *deletes 49* *stares at the one selfie till it turns ugly* *deletes that too*