Friday Fun: Word of the Year!

Posted on November 22, 2013 by Barbara

Oxford Dictionaries announced its international Word of the Year on November 19:

selfie

The origin of selfie has been traced to an Australian online forum in 2002, and apparently there are spinoffs like helfie (a selfie of your hair) and welfie (a workout selfie). Good grief. I had no idea.

The shortlist for word of the year includes bedroom tax, binge-watch, bitcoin, olinguito, schmeat, showrooming, and (unfortunately) twerk. I’ve only heard a couple of these myself. Visit the site to learn their meanings if they unfamiliar to you too.

Andersen Library provides access to the OED (Oxford English Dictionary), and if you’re interested in building your vocabulary, you can visit the database to set up an RSS feed of the Word of the Day! Or, follow OED on Twitter.

About Barbara

I am a Reference & Instruction librarian, head of that department in Andersen Library, an associate professor, and a member of the General Education Review Committee and Faculty Senate. I've been working at UW-W since July 1, 1990.
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2 Responses to Friday Fun: Word of the Year!

  1. spudart says:
    November 23, 2013 at 7:46 pm

    The news of twerk making the shortlist makes me want to dance to popular music in a sexually provocative manner involving thrusting hip movements and a low, squatting stance.

  2. Infovoyeur says:
    November 24, 2013 at 5:10 pm

    The neologinisms are very gneiss, however, we the undersighed wane to no, what is rong with the old and family-ial words, which carry both cultural tradion, and also the up-to-dait currency of the moderne changes?

    Your’s spectfully,

    Al Fresco
    Beau Rivage
    Minim Scintilla
    Orotund Ortolan
    Trifecta Tsunami

Comments are closed.