Oxford dictionaries named an unlikely candidate for word of the year 2015, as it is not a word at all but an emoji. It was announced on Monday November 16, 2015, that “Face with Tears of Joy” emoji won the title. Yup, emojis are now considered words in the English language dictionary. It seems very appropriate as emojis are used in text messages and in social media all the time in place of actual words and to express emotions. But for Oxford to choose an emoji as an official word tells us that our language is heading into a wordless, short-handed, hieroglyphic-type language.
Emojis have actually been in use since the late 1990’s, but increased in use in 2015. Emoji actually comes from the Japanese words e- which means picture, and moji-which means letter or character. A similar term for emojis has been around for quite some time in America as ‘emoticon’ (such as ;)), which is short for emotion icon.
Emojis are everywhere in today’s world. Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitter automatically add emojis to their sites. Other devices and sites have their own version of emojis. Emoji has even come out with its own merchandise and apparel. Some people can even hold entire conversations using emojis. Granted, this is not the first time a slang word or made up word has become an official word. In fact, the English language constantly adds new words to the dictionary every day as more and more people start to use the slang word over the correct word (ex: GIF and Selfie).
The “Face with Tears of Joy” emoji won because Oxford chose a “‘word’ that best reflected the ethos, mood, and preoccupations of 2015.” This year Oxford joined SwiftKey to figure out the most frequently used emoji around to world. Go positivity and global unity! An emoji winning word of the year opens the doors for other non-words to make their way into our language. This new “language” is exciting news for people everywhere as our dialogue is officially changing and reflecting our new millennial attitude. *cue winky face blowing kiss emoji*