Official newspaper of The University of Texas at Austin

The Daily Texan

Official newspaper of The University of Texas at Austin

The Daily Texan

Official newspaper of The University of Texas at Austin

The Daily Texan

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October 4, 2022
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Selfie named word of the year for 2013

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AP Exchange

Meryl Streep and Hillary Clinton pose for a selfie photo. We wish we could've been there. 

In a surprising come-from behind-win, "selfie" has been named by Oxford Dictionaries as the 2013 Word of the Year. 

While we all love to take pictures of ourselves with our front facing cell phone camera, "selfie" is not a new word. The term was actually coined in 2002, presumably when everyone began applying absurd amounts of eye-liner, holding one hand in a a peace sign and pointing the camera at the mirror for a perfect Myspace profile picture. 

In the past year, the Pope and the Obama girls have posed for selfies. If that doesn't make it word of the year, I'm not sure what does. 


According to Oxford's editors, the word has gone up an incredible 17,000% in usage since 2012. This is could the result of toddlers being given cell-phones for Christmas, or possibly grandmothers learning to take photos of themselves. 

In fact, selfie's nomination is really no surprise at all. The word is used pretty often, has a fairly positive connotation, and–hell– Snapchat almost just sold for $3 million so we obviously aren't the only ones taking photos of ourselves laughing while eating a burrito bowl at Chipotle. 

The real surprise here is that "twerk," which made the short list, didn't win. What defines 2013 more than Miley Cyrus in that teddy bear suit? Other losers include "binge-watch" as in "yes I just binge-watched all seasons of 'Breaking Bad,' and no I haven't finished my research paper." 

"Schmeat" was also a contender, but as the word defines a synthetic meat, it really had no chance. 

You can now find last year's word of the year, "omnishambles," crying in the corner. 

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Selfie named word of the year for 2013