'Selfie' is 2013 word of the year

2013-12-12 10:57 China Daily Web Editor: Yao Lan

'Selfie' is 2013 word of the year

When the word nerds (a term of endearment, I swear) at the Oxford English Dictionaries sat down to consider which word commanded enough prominence during the course of 2013 to be named the official word of the year, the choice was obvious.

In an unusual unanimous decision, the group awarded the honor to two syllables which, when combined in a particular order, best describe the paradoxical nexus of narcissism and shared social experience known as the "selfie."

In case you aren't as hip as a reference librarian, here's the official definition for selfie (sometimes "selfy"):

a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website.

The word was originally added to Oxford's quite broad online dictionaries in August. Being declared the "it" word for 2013 means that selfies have been all over this year. Indeed, in its blog post announcing the selection, Oxford explained, "If it is good enough for the Obamas or the pope, then it is good enough for Word of the Year."

Some credit is likely due to Instagram for taking selfies this far, and I'm a little surprised that instagram, the verb, (as in: "I'm totally going instagram that sunset with some hella-subtle filters") has not yet made it into the Oxford vernacular.

Then again, selfies were being taken long before Instagram. According to Oxford Dictionaries' research, the phrase has been spotted online as early as 2002 in forum postings. MySpace and Flickr first helped popularize the term, but it wasn't until 2012 that it began to surface in mainstream media. It really took off this year, though -- with the word's frequency of usage increasing five-fold between March and August.

So it appears selfies are here to stay for a while, which is OK with me, but I am concerned about the creation of related terms that Oxford also makes note of, such as "helfie" (a picture of one's own hair) or "belfie" (a picture of one's own posterior).

The old phenomenon of body parts pressed against the glass of the office copier was bad enough; the last thing we need is a belfie meme. The only thing worse might be the meta-meme in response to such a trend -- and I really don't have any interest in seeing my Facebook feed filled with "barfies."

“自拍”成为2013年的年度热词

据美国科技网站CNET报道，当编写《牛津英语字典》的书虫们（word nerds）（我发誓这绝对是爱称）坐在一起，考虑哪个词在2013年特别突出，足以提名成为官方年度词时，这个答案是显而易见的。

难得的是，这次整个小组意见高度统一，他们决定将这一荣誉授予一个双音节词，词中的两个音节经过特定的顺序组合在一起，对自恋和自己给自己拍下照片并上传到网上这种普遍的社会现象之间矛盾的联系做出了最佳诠释，这个词就是——自拍（selfie）。

也许你不像参考图书管理员知道那么多时髦词汇，那么在这此给出自拍的官方解释：

自拍就是一个人给自己拍的照片，尤其是使用智能手机或网络摄像头拍摄，上传到社交媒体网站的照片。

这个词一开始是在8月份收录在全面的牛津在线词典中的。“自拍”成为2013年最热的词，这说明它的确在这一年里保持着高出镜率。事实上，牛津出版社在宣布自拍成为2013年年度词的那篇博客文章里解释道，“如果奥巴马这样的政客或是教皇都很认可它，那么它成为年度词汇是当之无愧的。”

自拍之所以如此热门，也是与一些诸如Instagram之类的图片抓拍处理和共享应用分不开的，不过令我感到惊讶的是，Instagram的动词（比如：我要用滤镜效果instagram一下日落的景色）为什么没有被收录进牛津的日常词汇中。

话虽如此，但自拍这个词出现的时间要比Instagram早得多。据牛津词典调查，这个词早在2002年就在论坛的帖子中出现了。MySpace和Flickr率先普及了这个词，但是直到2012年这个词才出现在主流媒体中。2013年，这个词变得相当流行，因为它的使用频率在3月至8月间增长了5倍。

自拍似乎还会流行一阵子，这对我来说还是可以接受的，但我更关心的是牛津提到的其它创造出来的相关词汇，比如“helfie”（发型自拍）还有“belfie”（背部自拍）。

过去那种把身体贴在办公室复印机玻璃上的的景象是很糟糕的；我们最不需要的就是背部自拍文化。唯一比这还糟的就是为了回应这一趋势而产生的超越文化，我也不希望看到我的脸书上充斥着酒吧自拍。