Oxford dictionary announced its word of the year. This is the first time when the word is, a pictograph, officially called the ‘Face with Tears of Joy’ emoji (The one in which the emoji face is crying and laughing at the same time).
Today, when communication is undergoing serious dilation, Oxford has gone on and taken a step in that very direction.
Oxford comes out with the ‘Word of the Year’ (WOTY) every year, and this year that word is an emoji. Not the word ’emoji’ but an actual pictorial emoji — one of many present on our WhatsApp, Snapchat, and Facebook.
Reasons behind Selection
- This year Oxford University Press had partnered with leading mobile technology business SwiftKey to explore frequency and usage statistics for some of the most popular emoji across the world.
- This emoji was chosen because it was the most used emoji globally in 2015.
- SwiftKey identified that it made up 20% of all the emojis used in the UK in 2015, and 17% of those in the US and has shown a sharp rise from 4% and 9% respectively in 2014
- According to Oxford ‘Face with Tears of Joy’ emoji was chosen as the Word of the Year as it “best reflected the ethos, mood, and preoccupations of 2015.”
- Oxford expands on its reasoning as follows:
“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”.
Other shortlisted words in race of WOTY 2015
There were eight other WOTY shortlists for the year —
- ad blocker
- Brexit
- Dark Web
- on fleek
- lumbersexual
- refugee
- sharing economy
- they (singular)
A brief history of emoji
- Pictographs were used as earliest forms of writing. Over time communication evolved, and language (written and spoken) developed
- An emoji is ‘a small digital image or icon used to express an idea or emotion in electronic communication’
- The term emoji is a loanword from Japanese, and comes from: e (picture) + moji (letter, character).
- There’s an emoji to depict every emotion—anger, sadness, happiness, goofiness, excitement etc.
- The similarity to the English word emoticon has helped its memorability and rise in use, though the resemblance is actually entirely coincidental: emoticon (a facial expression composed of keyboard characters, such as :-), rather than a stylized image) comes from the English words emotion and icon.