Oxford Dictionaries has picked an emoji (or pictograph) as its word of the year for the first time, as social media takes an ever-greater role in modern life. The selection of the ‘face with tears of joy’ emoji is the culmination of a partnership between Oxford University Press, the publisher of all Oxford dictionaries, with […]
Oxford Dictionaries has picked an emoji (or pictograph) as its word of the year for the first time, as social media takes an ever-greater role in modern life.
The selection of the ‘face with tears of joy’ emoji is the culmination of a partnership between Oxford University Press, the publisher of all Oxford dictionaries, with third-party software keyboard maker SwiftKey.
The partnership worked to “explore frequency and usage statistics for some of the most popular emoji across the world.” The linguistic duo determined that the emoji, also known as ‘face with tears of joy,’ was by far the most oft-used emoji around the world in 2015.
The choice emphasises how important the emoji has become to modern language. The rise of text-centric communication apps such as Line, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger have made emojis a necessary solution for expressing emotion as clearly as possible.
Casper Grathwohl, president of Oxford Dictionaries, said: “You can see how traditional alphabet scripts have been struggling to meet the rapid-fire, visually focused demands of 21st century communication.
“It’s not surprising that a pictographic script like emoji has stepped in to fill those gaps – it’s flexible, immediate, and infuses tone beautifully. As a result emoji are becoming an increasingly rich form of communication, one that transcends linguistic borders.
“When Andy Murray tweeted out his wedding itinerary entirely in emoji, for example, he shared a subtle mix of his feelings about the day directly with fans around the world. It was highly effective in expressing his emotions.”
