‘Selfie’ is ‘runaway winner’ as Oxford Dictionaries’ word of the year

“GIF� was so last year.

Oxford Dictionaries has released its 2013 word of the year, and, like last year, it has gone with a tech-savvy term: “selfie.�

The formal definition of the word, for those of you not familiar with social media and/or narcissism, is a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically using a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website. For an example of a selfie, check out Kim Kardashian’s swimsuit version.

In a blog post announcing the decision, Oxford Dictionaries called “selfie� the “runaway winner.�

“The decision was unanimous this year, with little if any argument. This is a little unusual. Normally there will be some good-natured debate as one person might champion their particular choice over someone else’s. But this time, everyone seemed to be in agreement almost from the start.�

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Other contenders included “twerk� (thank you, Miley Cyrus), “bitcoin,� “showrooming� and “binge-watch.�

Tech terms have been popular on Oxford’s top-word list over the last decade. “GIF� took the top spot last year, and “unfriend� was No. 1 in 2009. “Podcast� was the word of the year back in 2005.

Oxford went on to say that it has already seen a proliferation of words piggy-backing off the popularity of “selfie.�

“Its linguistic productivity is already being seen by the creation of a number of related terms, showcasing particular parts of the body like helfie (a picture of one’s hair) and belfie (a picture of one’s posterior); a particular activity -- welfie (workout selfie) and drelfie (drunken selfie),� Oxford said. “In fact, it seems that the words know no bounds, although some do seem rather forced.�

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