Mon, Nov 16, 2015
By Oxford
That’s right – for the first time ever, the
Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year is a pictograph: this emoticons officially
called the ‘Face with Tears of Joy’ emoji, though you may know it by other
names. There were other strong contenders from a range of fields, outlined
below, but this emoticon was chosen as the ‘word’ that best reflected the
ethos, mood, and preoccupations of 2015.
Why was this chosen?
Emojis (the plural can be either emoji or
emojis) have been around since the late 1990s, but 2015 saw their use, and use of
the word emoji, increase hugely.
This year Oxford University Press have
partnered with leading mobile technology business Swift-Key to explore
frequency and usage statistics for some of the most popular emoji across the
world, and this emoticons was chosen because it was the most used emoji
globally in 2015. Swift-Key identified that this emoticon made up 20% of all
the emojis used in the UK in
2015, and 17% of those in the US
A brief history of emoji
An emoji
is ‘a small digital image or icon used to express an idea or emotion in
electronic communication’; the term emoji is a loanword from Japanese, and
comes from e ‘picture’ + moji ‘letter, character’. The similarity to the
English word emoticon has helped its memorability and rise in use, though the
resemblance is actually entirely coincidental: emoticon (a facial expression
composed of keyboard characters, such as ;), rather than a stylized image)
comes from the English words emotion and icon.
Emojis
are no longer the preserve of texting teens – instead, they have been embraced
as a nuanced form of expression, and one which can cross language barriers.
Even Hillary Clinton solicited feedback in the form of emojis, and this emoticons has had notable use from celebrities and brands alongside everyone
else – and even appeared as the caption to the Vine which apparently kicked off
the popularity of the term on fleek, which appears on our WOTY shortlist.
Now that
we’re all used to emojis being a shorthand method of communicating our
thoughts, emotions, and responses, it made us wonder: what would it look like
if you used emojis in real life? Our video imagines what exactly would happen.
http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2015/11/word-of-the-year-2015-emoji/
Structure of the Lead：
WHO: The emoticon which
was officially called the ‘Face with Tears of Joy’ emoji
WHAT: be chosen as the Oxford Dictionaries Word
of the year
WHEN: 2015
WHY: It was the most
used emoji globally and most people think it is the best way to reflect the
ethos, mood, and preoccupations.
WHERE: not given
HOW: not given
Keywords：
1. The Oxford Dictionary - 牛津字典
2. emoticon - 表情符號
3. contender - (冠軍)爭奪者
4. memorability - 易記得
5. frequency - 頻率
6. usage statistic - 使用統計
7. shortlist - 名單
8. shorthand method - 速記法
9. notable - 顯著
10. language barriers - 語言隔閡
