So what's been named Word of the Year by Oxford dictionaries?
It may not be a word by the strictest definition – but the emoji commonly known as “face with tears of joy” has been named the “Word” of the Year for 2015 by Oxford Dictionaries.
The emoji commonly known as “face with tears of joy”
It is indeed a breakthrough year for the pictograms first spread by texting teenagers. And this has been marked by the Oxford Dictionaries’ recognition for a word or expression that “captures the ethos, mood, or preoccupations of that particular year.”
Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English
Said the President of Oxford Dictionaries,
“Traditional alphabet scripts have been struggling to meet the rapid-fire, visually focused demands of 21st Century communication. It’s not surprising that a pictographic script like emoji has stepped in to fill those gaps. As a result emoji are becoming an increasingly rich form of communication, one that transcends linguistic borders.”
Research found that “Face with Tears of Joy” was the most heavily used emoji globally in 2015. Emoji is a loanword from Japanese defined as “a small digital image or icon used to express an idea or emotion in electronic communication.”
Emoji keyboard on an Android phone
Oxford Dictionaries defines a “word” variously as a “single distinct meaningful element of speech or writing” or “conceptual unit of language”, allowing emoji to take their place among more conventional communicative forms.
Apple’s new multi-racial emoji
The increased use of emoji is evidenced by Hillary Clinton soliciting feedback in emoji, as well as on-going debates about the skin tone of smiley faces. It is also timely that the new iPhone update iOS 9.1 brings a huge library of emoji that include a cheese wedge, a turkey, a range of religious buildings and new faces such as one that looks sick and another that looks injured.
(All images - credit: Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons licence)
