‘Selfie’ Oxford Dictionary: ‘Selfie’ Is Word Of The Year After Being Widely Used Worldwide; ‘Twerk’ And ‘Schmeat’ Among Other Nominated Words

'Selfie' is Oxford Dictionary's word of the year. It is defined as "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 selfie was first known recorded and used in an Australian forum where one guy posted about taking a picture of himself and coining the term as 'selfie'.

"Um, drunk at a mates 21st, I tripped ofer [sic] and landed lip first (with front teeth coming a very close second) on a set of steps. I had a hole about 1cm long right through my bottom lip. And sorry about the focus, it was a selfie."

Though it was first popularized with a -y at the end, people changed it with an -ie at the end to look it more pleasing to spell which became the accepted spelling known worldwide.

An editorial director Judy Pearsall explained how the word 'selfie' evolved and originated.

"In early examples, the word was often spelled with a -y, but the -ie form is more common today and has become the accepted spelling. The use of the diminutive -ie suffix is notable, as it helps to turn an essentially narcissistic enterprise into something rather more endearing. Australian English has something of a penchant for -ie words ... so this helps to support the evidence for selfie having originated in Australia."

With the upward spike of the popularity of the use of word gave them the decision to be selected as the word of the year.

"Using the Oxford Dictionaries language research program, which collects around 150M words of current English in use each month, we can see a phenomenal upward trend in the use of 'selfie' in 2013, and this helped to cement its selection."

Other words that barely got the prize was 'twerk', which is a dance motion shake of the behind of a person and 'schmeat', which means man-made meat or cultured meat.