Oxford Dictionary's 'Word of the Year' had seen a fair share of the 21st century flavour when it added 'selfie' to be the 'Word of the year' in 2013. But it has certainly outdone itself as it announced a 'Word of the Year-2015' which does not contain any of the 26 letters of the alphabet. It is an emoji or emoticon and to be more specific, it is the 'Tears of joy' or this one:
How did Oxford decide on this?
According to Oxford Dictionaries, Oxford University Press partnered with leading mobile technology business SwiftKey to get statistics on the most popular emoji used in the world.
SwiftKey found out that 'Tears of Joy' face made up 20% or 1/5th of all the emojis used in the UK in 2015, and 17% of those in the US: a sharp rise from 4% and 9% respectively in 2014.
The SwiftKey figures also show a rise in use of the word 'emoji' in 2015.
The words on the shortlist come from wide-ranging subjects from global politics, current affairs and technology to popular culture.
These were the other words that featured in this year's shortlist for the WOTY:
- ad blocker , noun: A piece of software designed to prevent advertisements from appearing on a web page.
- Brexit , noun: A term for the potential or hypothetical departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union, from British + exit.
- Dark Web , noun: The part of the World Wide Web that is only accessible by means of special software, allowing users and website operators to remain anonymous or untraceable.
- on fleek , adjectival phrase: Extremely good, attractive, or stylish.
- lumbersexual , noun: A young urban man who cultivates an appearance and style of dress (typified by a beard and check shirt) suggestive of a rugged outdoor lifestyle.
- refugee , noun: A person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster.
- sharing economy , noun: An economic system in which assets or services are shared between private individuals, either for free or for a fee, typically by means of the Internet.
- they (singular), pronoun: Used to refer to a person of unspecified sex.
While the last two years' Word of the Year-'Selfie' and 'Vape' are still ubiquitous, choosing an emoji is certainly unconventional.
"Emojis are no longer the preserve of texting teens - instead, they have been embraced as a nuanced form of expression, and one which can cross language barriers," said the Press.
Some say this change in selection of word is a reflection of the dynamic world of today intergrated so tightly with technology.
If we put a human face to the emojis, this is what it would look like:
