That’s right – for the first time ever, the
Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year is a pictograph: 😂, officially called
the ‘Face with Tears of Joy’ emoji, though you may know it by other names.
There were other strong contenders from a range of fields, outlined below, but 😂 was
chosen as the ‘word’ that best reflected the ethos, mood, and preoccupations of
2015.
Why was this chosen?
Emojis (the plural can be either emoji or emojis) have been around since the
late 1990s, but 2015 saw their use, and use of the word emoji, increase hugely. This year Oxford University Press have
partnered with leading mobile technology business SwiftKey to explore frequency
and usage statistics for some of the most popular emoji across the world, and 😂 was chosen because it was the most used emoji globally in
2015. SwiftKey identified that 😂 made up 20% of all
the emojis used in the UK in
2015, and 17% of those in the US
A brief
history of emoji
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’. 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.
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. Even Hillary Clinton
solicited feedback in the form of emojis, and 😂 has had notable use from celebrities and brands
alongside everyone else – and even appeared as the caption tothe
Vine which apparently
kicked off the popularity of the term on fleek, which
appears on our WOTY shortlist.
Emoticons can overcome language barriers, as a seeing each other's face can be seen as the moment to understand that although we may be in front of a computer blankly, but I felt it able to express feelings through emoticons is a good thing.
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