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The Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2015 Is an Emoji (oxforddictionaries.com)

Posted by Soulskill on from the it's-too-late-to-complain-but-go-ahead dept.

AmiMoJo writes: For the first time ever, the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year is a pictograph (that Slashdot is unable to reproduce), officially called the 'Face with Tears of Joy' emoji (U+1F602). Oxford University Press have partnered with SwiftKey to explore frequency and usage statistics for some of the most popular emoji across the world. Emoji is a Japanese word (pronounced "eh-mo-jee"), originating from Japanese mobile service providers who all had their own unique set before they were standardized in Unicode. Other notable words this year include "ad blocker," "Brexit" (British exit from the EU), lumbersexual and "they (singular)" (pronoun to refer to a person of unspecified sex).

7 of 151 comments (clear)

  1. Pathetic. by pla · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Aaand, the OED just jumped the shark. Language may evolve, but at some point we need to draw the line - A pictogram does not count as a "word". Why not include Wood's American Gothic? Michaelangelo's statue of David (Or maybe they consider that more appropriate for the Italian dictionary?).

    / Lumbersexual. Nice knowin' ya, OED.

  2. Thumbs down by kaatochacha · · Score: 3, Insightful

    sad face.

  3. Cue the Luddites by PvtVoid · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Before the inevitable 60 posts bemoaning the fall of civilization, it's probably worth noting that logographic scripts are very common in the world, and have been used throughout history. What could be more revolutionary, and interesting, in the 21st century to see logographic elements making inroads into languages with alphabetic scripts? Kudos to Oxford!

  4. Re:F : A - I ( L by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Actually, the OED is still a respectable scholarly work. This is just an offshoot that picks interesting words every year as a kind of PR stunt, and to show that they are actively studying language rather than just collecting words.

    Lumbersexual is a new one to me. Apparently it's someone who grooms and dresses to appear like a person who spends a lot of time outdoors (like a lumberjack I guess).

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  5. Singular "they" by spaceyhackerlady · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm surprised singular "they" has only just now made it. I've heard it (and used it myself) since the 1980s.

    Times change. Language changes.

    ...laura

    1. Re:Singular "they" by gstoddart · · Score: 2, Insightful

      No, but unfortunately it's no longer wrong.

      It has never been wrong. The use of "they" like that isn't a new construct, was never wrong.

      In fact, it's been correct for a very long time.

      But you're just making a fool of yourself when you go around telling users of singular they that theyâ(TM)re wrong, because theyâ(TM)re not.

      That you don't know it was already correct is your damned problem.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  6. Re:It's A Dark Day For Oxford by MitchDev · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Dark day for intelligence when these stupid emojis are given "word" status...

    Now maybe thousand-word status since a picture is supposedly worth a thousand words...