‘Selfie’ beats ‘twerk’ to be named Oxford Dictionaries’ word of the year

Teenagers do it, celebrities do it, even the pope does it. "Selfie," the term for a self- portrait snapped on a smartphone, is the word of the year.

Oxford Dictionaries Online announced its trendy choice for the 2013 word of the year with a blog post that said the decision was unanimous.

"It seems like everyone who is anyone has posted a selfie somewhere on the Internet. If it is good enough for the Obamas or The Pope, then it is good enough for Word of the Year," the online language authority wrote.

The title goes to a word with a particular prominence each year, whether its status comes from current affairs or social trends. Associated Press reported the 2008 word of the year was "credit crunch," and in 2009, the word was "unfriend" — another choice tied heavily to social media.

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The news wire reported Oxford Dictionaries gathered its list of potential choices with software that tracks word usage online. The organization then narrowed the words down to a shortlist that included "twerk," "bitcoin" and "showrooming," the last a term for looking at products in store and then buying them online, according to Associated Press.

But "selfie" earned the title in the end, with usage that began as far back as 2002 in online forums before expanding widely to social media and finally, to the mainstream press.

Oxford Dictionaries Online also added "selfie" to the dictionary this summer.

Increasingly, it seems, Oxford Dictionaries is more acquainted with today's lingo than this blogger; the announcement mentions several new hybrid terms that have emerged by smashing "selfie" together with other words, including hair (helfie), drunk (drelfie) and — somehow — dead (delfie).