Parlor Spider...Step In, Little Fly

Insightful thoughts and/or rants from atop the soapbox from one who wishes to share the "right" opinion with everyone.

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

At least It Wasn't "Schmeat."

The English language is an incredibly complex thing...mostly because we seem to mangle it at every turn. "bag" and "sack" are the same thing? "Bubbler" and "water fountain" are the same things? Who knew. and so it goes. Every year, the dictionaries get bigger and more connected to  popular culture. Even made-up words finally get their moment in the sun as the Oxford Online Dictionary chooses a "Word of the Year." this year, the finalists were words like "twerk," "showrooming," "bitcoin," "schmeat," and "selfie." The first one is obvious. The second means to check a product out in the store before buying it online...I do this all the time."Bitcoin" is a money transaction without real money, and "schmeat" is, well, you don't want to know, but it involves putting something in real meat to make it seem MORE like real meat.
Our winner this year is "selfie" for obvious reasons. I mean if the Pope's selfie goes viral, you know everybody in the world is doing it.
Not a new word, exactly, "selfie" was first used in 2002 in an Australian online forum (how do people know this stuff?). The frequency of its use has increased by 17,000% in the last year...mostly by Kim Kardashian, I suspect...or Anthony Weiner.
Anyway, showing some semblance of  decorum, the Oxford folks have not yet decided that the word deserves a place in the Oxford English Dictionary so for now, it will reside only in the online version.
Seems appropriate.

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