Oxford Dictionaries' 2015 word of the year is difficult to
pronounce. Because it has no letters. It is a cartoon yellow face, shedding two
giant tears.
They
are not tears of sadness for the English language. It is a happy crying face,
most commonly used as an LOL alternative.
Every
year, Oxford Dictionaries' lexicographers chose a word that captures the year's
biggest trends or changes in the English language. The organization knew it
wanted to pick an emoji for 2015. The tiny
illustrations that pepper social media and text conversations have seen a surge
in popularity in recent years.
"You
can see how traditional alphabet scripts have been struggling to meet the
rapid-fire, visually focused demands of 21st century communication," said
Oxford Dictionaries' president Casper Grathwohl in a statement. "It's not
surprising that a pictographic script like emoji has stepped in to fill those
gaps."
The
official name for the chosen emoji is "face with tears of joy,"
according to the Unicode Consortium, the organization in charge of emoji
standards. It was first introduced in 2010 and variations can be found on
Android and iOS devices, on the web, and across social media.
There
are more than 1,000 emoji characters, but Oxford could only chose one. A taco or
unicorn emoji would have represented the most buzzed-about newcomers. The red
heart is one of the oldest emojis.
Oxford
Dictionaries teamed up with SwiftKey, a maker of emoji keyboards, to identify
the most commonly used emoji. It found the tears of joy face was the most
frequently used emoji in 2015, making up 17% of all emojis in the U.S. and 20%
in the UK.
The
emoji is the latest in a string of light-hearted picks from Oxford
Dictionaries. Last year it went with "vape," in 2013 it was
"selfie," and in 2012 it was "GIF."
emoji,
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