When the word nerds (a term of endearment, I swear) at the Oxford English Dictionaries sat down to consider which word commanded enough prominence during the course of 2013 to be named the official word of the year, the choice was obvious.
In an unusual unanimous decision, the group awarded the honor to two syllables which, when combined in a particular order, best describe the paradoxical nexus of narcissism and shared social experience known as the "selfie."
In case you aren't as hip as a reference librarian, here's the official definition for selfie (sometimes "selfy"):
a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website.
The word was originally added to Oxford's quite broad online dictionaries in August. Being declared the "it" word for 2013 means that selfies have been all over this year. Indeed, in its blog post announcing the selection, Oxford explained, "If it is good enough for the Obamas or the pope, then it is good enough for Word of the Year."
Some credit is likely due to Instagram for taking selfies this far, and I'm a little surprised that instagram, the verb, (as in: "I'm totally going instagram that sunset with some hella-subtle filters") has not yet made it into the Oxford vernacular.
Then again, selfies were being taken long before Instagram. According to Oxford Dictionaries' research, the phrase has been spotted online as early as 2002 in forum postings. MySpace and Flickr first helped popularize the term, but it wasn't until 2012 that it began to surface in mainstream media. It really took off this year, though -- with the word's frequency of usage increasing five-fold between March and August.
So it appears selfies are here to stay for a while, which is OK with me, but I am concerned about the creation of related terms that Oxford also makes note of, such as "helfie" (a picture of one's own hair) or "belfie" (a picture of one's own posterior).
The old phenomenon of body parts pressed against the glass of the office copier was bad enough; the last thing we need is a belfie meme. The only thing worse might be the meta-meme in response to such a trend -- and I really don't have any interest in seeing my Facebook feed filled with "barfies."
據(jù)美國科技網(wǎng)站CNET報(bào)道，當(dāng)編寫《牛津英語字典》的書蟲們（word nerds）（我發(fā)誓這絕對是愛稱）坐在一起，考慮哪個(gè)詞在2013年特別突出，足以提名成為官方年度詞時(shí)，這個(gè)答案是顯而易見的。
難得的是，這次整個(gè)小組意見高度統(tǒng)一，他們決定將這一榮譽(yù)授予一個(gè)雙音節(jié)詞，詞中的兩個(gè)音節(jié)經(jīng)過特定的順序組合在一起，對自戀和自己給自己拍下照片并上傳到網(wǎng)上這種普遍的社會(huì)現(xiàn)象之間矛盾的聯(lián)系做出了最佳詮釋，這個(gè)詞就是——自拍（selfie）。
也許你不像參考圖書管理員知道那么多時(shí)髦詞匯，那么在這此給出自拍的官方解釋：
自拍就是一個(gè)人給自己拍的照片，尤其是使用智能手機(jī)或網(wǎng)絡(luò)攝像頭拍攝，上傳到社交媒體網(wǎng)站的照片。
這個(gè)詞一開始是在8月份收錄在全面的牛津在線詞典中的。“自拍”成為2013年最熱的詞，這說明它的確在這一年里保持著高出鏡率。事實(shí)上，牛津出版社在宣布自拍成為2013年年度詞的那篇博客文章里解釋道，“如果奧巴馬這樣的政客或是教皇都很認(rèn)可它，那么它成為年度詞匯是當(dāng)之無愧的。”
自拍之所以如此熱門，也是與一些諸如Instagram之類的圖片抓拍處理和共享應(yīng)用分不開的，不過令我感到驚訝的是，Instagram的動(dòng)詞（比如：我要用濾鏡效果instagram一下日落的景色）為什么沒有被收錄進(jìn)牛津的日常詞匯中。
話雖如此，但自拍這個(gè)詞出現(xiàn)的時(shí)間要比Instagram早得多。據(jù)牛津詞典調(diào)查，這個(gè)詞早在2002年就在論壇的帖子中出現(xiàn)了。MySpace和Flickr率先普及了這個(gè)詞，但是直到2012年這個(gè)詞才出現(xiàn)在主流媒體中。2013年，這個(gè)詞變得相當(dāng)流行，因?yàn)樗氖褂妙l率在3月至8月間增長了5倍。
自拍似乎還會(huì)流行一陣子，這對我來說還是可以接受的，但我更關(guān)心的是牛津提到的其它創(chuàng)造出來的相關(guān)詞匯，比如“helfie”（發(fā)型自拍）還有“belfie”（背部自拍）。
過去那種把身體貼在辦公室復(fù)印機(jī)玻璃上的的景象是很糟糕的；我們最不需要的就是背部自拍文化。唯一比這還糟的就是為了回應(yīng)這一趨勢而產(chǎn)生的超越文化，我也不希望看到我的臉書上充斥著酒吧自拍。 |
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