The Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2015 Is an Emoji (oxforddictionaries.com) 151
AmiMoJo writes: For the first time ever, the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year is a pictograph (that Slashdot is unable to reproduce), officially called the 'Face with Tears of Joy' emoji (U+1F602). Oxford University Press have partnered with SwiftKey to explore frequency and usage statistics for some of the most popular emoji across the world. Emoji is a Japanese word (pronounced "eh-mo-jee"), originating from Japanese mobile service providers who all had their own unique set before they were standardized in Unicode. Other notable words this year include "ad blocker," "Brexit" (British exit from the EU), lumbersexual and "they (singular)" (pronoun to refer to a person of unspecified sex).
Oxford gets it! (Score:4, Funny)
The modern app appers at Oxford know that only apps can app apps, which is why they're apping Emoji apps so we can app other apps using Emojis!
Apps!
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Can you add in a reference to 3d printing, self driving cars, "the cloud" and crowd-sourcing?
It's A Dark Day For Oxford (Score:1)
IDK language is teh suck anymor i h8 wots up.
Re:It's A Dark Day For Oxford (Score:5, Insightful)
Dark day for intelligence when these stupid emojis are given "word" status...
Now maybe thousand-word status since a picture is supposedly worth a thousand words...
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Crazy, the idea of a pictograph being used to represent a word....
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And a dark day when a text-only technology website is behind the curve for, you know, text.
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Kanji are alphabetized by stroke count and base radical, which is the simpler root pictograph that carries the meaning of a character in the same way that old Latin roots are used to form new words in English. For example, a cloud over a field is kaminari, thunder, and adding a vertical stroke through it turns it into inazuma, lightning.
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English uses the 26 letters of the alphabet for words.
Pictograms are pictograms, NOT English words.
It's not really that difficult
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Does this mean that the English language has acquired its first official kanji? We have others, such as the common one for "merging traffic" that could be submitted for consideration.
F : A - I ( L (Score:1)
... making their "dictionary" official...ly useless. Next time someone tries to use it as an authority in conversation, like, "well, the OED says that that word means..." you can shut that fool down by pointing out that they (Oxford) think emoticons are words.
fuck 'em
Re:F : A - I ( L (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually, the OED is still a respectable scholarly work. This is just an offshoot that picks interesting words every year as a kind of PR stunt, and to show that they are actively studying language rather than just collecting words.
Lumbersexual is a new one to me. Apparently it's someone who grooms and dresses to appear like a person who spends a lot of time outdoors (like a lumberjack I guess).
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LOL, basically anybody who lives in cold climates, and has a beard I think.
Think plaid flannel.
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Re:F : A - I ( L (Score:4, Funny)
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Americans? ;-)
Is this unique to New Jersey? I think not.
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(no, I do not mean Frank Borland)
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Actually, the OED is still a respectable scholarly work. This is just an offshoot that picks interesting words every year as a kind of PR stunt, and to show that they are actively studying language rather than just collecting words.
Society "collects" and helps define words, not representatives from OED who merely work to validate them as an addition to OED.
And President Obama could make a porn video as a "PR stunt". Doesn't mean it has fuck-all to do with his normal duties, much like dicking around with emojis has fuck-all to do with the english language.
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Lumbersexual is a new one to me. Apparently it's someone who grooms and dresses to appear like a person who spends a lot of time outdoors (like a lumberjack I guess).
This might be a bigger travesty than the emoji thing. I guess the suffix "-sexual" now also relates solely to the clothes somebody wears.
For some reason, I don't think I'll be using the word "businesscasualsexual" any time soon.
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He's a lumberjack and he's OK (Score:5, Funny)
"Lumbersexual is a new one to me. Apparently it's someone who grooms and dresses to appear like a person who spends a lot of time outdoors (like a lumberjack I guess)."
Put on womens clothing and hang around in bars?
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Lumbersexual is a new one to me. Apparently it's someone who grooms and dresses to appear like a person who spends a lot of time outdoors (like a lumberjack I guess)
And they're okay.
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Lumbersexual is a new one to me. Apparently it's someone who grooms and dresses to appear like a person who spends a lot of time outdoors (like a lumberjack I guess).
they cut down trees, they wear high heels suspenders and a bra.
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Lumbersexual is a new one to me. Apparently it's someone who grooms and dresses to appear like a person who spends a lot of time outdoors (like a lumberjack I guess).
Initially I thought it might be a guy who was capable of getting wood.
Pathetic. (Score:4, Insightful)
/ Lumbersexual. Nice knowin' ya, OED.
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A pictogram does not count as a "word". .
Tell that to the Chinese. Or the ancient Egyptians. Or the Mayans.
Re:Pathetic. (Score:5, Informative)
I would be glad to, but they generally don't use English which is what the E in OED stands for
Re:Pathetic. (Score:4, Funny)
I would be glad to, but they generally don't use English which is what the E in OED stands for
Use emoji. They'll get the gist of it.
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Indeed, the GP could have picked "ad blocker" which is clearly two words. I'm glad they included them, the more people learn about ad blockers the better.
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I would say, it is in the eye of the beholder if chinese script is ugly. I find them extremely esthetic.
If you think so, it is fine not to learn them.
However you are pretty dumb if you believe Chinese use unicodes to 'type' chinese on a a keyboard.
I concur with the stupid modern icons on computer screens, I prefer text, too. Hence Imalways switch if the tool bar and use the menu, and if they make sense I learn the shortcuts.
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Aaand, the OED just jumped the shark.
You're living in the last century. "jumped the shark" has been replaced by "nuked the fridge".
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By choosing an emoji, the OED has made millions of people actively think about the OED, and when the hell
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A pictogram most certainly is a word.
At ideograms and logograms you may stop if you are to dumb to grasp them.
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I had hopes that something like "te" would become a popular replacement for he and she. Though they is genderless, it will always imply more than one in my book.
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I agree, except for the "they (singular)"
Both singular "they" and "he" are perfectly fine neutral pronouns in English. Thackeray writes:
while the English version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has:
Let's just throw out all the rules of English then (Score:2, Informative)
"They" as a singular pronoun? What the fuck? We already have a gender-neutral singular pronoun, "it." Oh, but you want to use a pronoun to refer to a person on an unknown gender? We have one for that too, it's "he." No reason to ignore the rules of grammar just because it hurts your feelings. Or, to put it in new-speak, hurts your SJW feels.
Re:Let's just throw out all the rules of English t (Score:4, Informative)
The use of "they" as a singular pronounce dates back to the 15th century and is a generally understood convention, one which is receiving increased use due to increased need to refer to people in a way which is dignified.
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I've been using "they" that way my whole life. It's not to avoid hurting anyone's feelings. It's just a common way people use that word, and part of how I grew up speaking. Glad OED has finally caught up with me.
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I'm actually surprise that "they (singular)" wasn't already in the dictionary, and never really understood why some people opposed it. It sure beats all of the debates over using "he/she", or people saying that the use of "he" or "she" is not meant to imply gender, or people arguing that "it" is valid or disrespectful. Not only is "they (singular)" in common use, there is enough redundancy in the English language that you can figure out whether it is singular or plural, it avoids the politics of "he/she",
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According to http://dictionary.reference.co... [reference.com], it's been used that way for centuries. This isn't anything new.
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No, those are its
Thumbs down (Score:4, Insightful)
sad face.
Cue the Luddites (Score:2, Insightful)
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This is a remarkably thoughtful post. Thanks for the reading material on these scripts.
However...I still have to disagree with Oxford and will assert my right to resort to ad hominem attacks against them and their editors.
What I give them kudos for is that they considered a pronoun that we've had forever to be a notable word (instead of attempting to validate the dumb new made-up pronouns). I have mixed feelings about all of this crap. Our language is a living language, and as such is evolving. At the s
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GTFOML!
ROFL! :-) :-)
Re:Cue the Luddites (Score:4, Interesting)
Before the inevitable 60 posts bemoaning the fall of civilization, it's probably worth noting that logographic scripts [wikipedia.org] are very common in the world, and have been used throughout history. What could be more revolutionary, and interesting, in the 21st century to see logographic elements making inroads into languages with alphabetic scripts? Kudos to Oxford!
It's probably worth noting that at one point the Ford Motor company only made one car (The Model T), and while the concept of automobiles and transportation has endured throughout history, the concept of one way to do it has long died, along with the kitsch of a crank-start car (a.k.a. using pictures to communicate)
If Ford were to start selling one kind of car again regardless of where roads may take us today, that's hardly room for praise. At some point a person with half a brain is going to ask the all-important what-the-fuck-were-you-thinking question that clearly wasn't asked at Oxford when adopting a picture as a word.
The "inroads" that brought logographic scripts into existence were born from ignorance, and there's a reason they have died off throughout history. We have words for that shit now.
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If Ford were to start selling one kind of car again regardless of where roads may take us today, that's hardly room for praise.
I dunno... if the past is any indicator, people might go crazy with joy if Ford decided to make it white, remove all but one door, round off all the edges and triple the price.
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I dunno... if the past is any indicator, people might go crazy with joy if Ford decided to make it white, remove all but one door, round off all the edges and triple the price.
That would be the upcoming Apple ICar.
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The "inroads" that brought logographic scripts into existence were born from ignorance, and there's a reason they have died off throughout history.
Wow, that's a remarkably ethnocentric perspective, considering that the world's most populous country uses a logographic script.
Alphabetic scripts have a huge advantage with respect to mechanical typesetting, but I would argue that the rise in popularity of emoji is a de facto demonstration that electronic typesetting is eroding that advantage away to nearly nothing. If I can type a logographic word with five keystrokes that would take ten for the equivalent alphabetic word, which one wins? What we're seein
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Chinese, and even the Egyptian hieroglyphics, isn't logographic in the same sense that emoji is. A purely logographic system is impractical, which is why there are none in use today.
It's a horridly inefficient and vague way to communicate any but the most superficial concepts. How would you even select the relevant five icons from the increasing number of pages of emoji?
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And, to show how flexible the company was, you could buy a brand-new one in any color you wanted, as long as you wanted black.
Bad pun... (Score:2)
There are no words for this.
Seriously. This is nuts.
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I think the word you're looking for is :(
"that Slashdot is unable to reproduce" (Score:1)
Why don't you support Unicode you stupid fucks?
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Singular "they" (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm surprised singular "they" has only just now made it. I've heard it (and used it myself) since the 1980s.
Times change. Language changes.
...laura
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Language changes.
Yes, yes they does.
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I'm pretty sure the singular, gender-neutral use of the word "they" has been around a lot longer than the 1980s.
"When a person is cold they might shiver" is hardly a new grammatical construct.
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My short answer to you is: that is utter bullshit.
You got some facts to back that up? Or just your own mistaken belief?
English is not a language in which everything has a gender. Claiming "he" and "she" are the only valid singular pronouns is wrong.
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True, but that's always been an incorrect use of "they".
According to who?
(YIDTD)
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I, for one, have used it in this manner for 60+ years. But I thought it was mostly confined to the South where I grew up.
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It has never been wrong. The use of "they" like that isn't a new construct, was never wrong.
In fact, it's been correct for a very long time. [wordpress.com]
That you don't know it was already correct is your damned problem.
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Yeah, I had a writing teacher tell me it was wrong then she bemoaned the masculine and made us write he/she or just she.
What a crackpot.
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It's because this year transgender issues have really come into the public conciousness, and I've seen a number of mainstream media outlets publishing articles on the language surrounding them. The general public is becoming more aware and learning how to speak about transgender people and issues without accidentally being offensive.
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It's because this year transgender issues have really come into the public conciousness, and I've seen a number of mainstream media outlets publishing articles on the language surrounding them. The general public is becoming more aware and learning how to speak about transgender people and issues without accidentally being offensive.
I don't view this as a transgender issue. I view it as a needed word. At one time "he" was accepted as a generic third-person singular pronoun, but since few people born since about 1920 accept it as such, we needed a new word. Singular "they" fills that need.
...laura
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Like SJWs give a shit what actual women think. Notice how this only became an issue when men pretending to be women all of a sudden found that they got called by the "wrong" pronouns.
Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)
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I wish I had some mod points for you, Sir.
For Old Timers (Score:1)
This article explains the difference between emoticons and emoji, emoticons being text only representations of what became pictographs in many of the early IRC and messaging clients, It would seem to me that since they are unicode, one could argue that the latter is simply an extension of the former. [theguardian.com]
Singular "They" (Score:1)
I have a word for the person... (Score:1)
...who wants to define a picture as a word.
Idiot.
Since we are talking about a dictionary here, let me add another word to help elaborate and clarify.
Fucking Idiot.
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Nobody has defined a picture as a word. They've said "the word which denotes a picture used as a word" is a word.
You know: emoji.
You will note that "emoji" is not a picture.
What are you on about? I bet your mother knows what an emoji is ... which is probably why it became a word of the year.
You might as well complain we have the word statue, because a statue isn't a word either.
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Nobody has defined a picture as a word. They've said "the word which denotes a picture used as a word" is a word.
From TFS:
the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year is a pictograph
Better luck next time.
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Next year, I nominate.... (Score:1)
... the extended middle finger, which has been in use long before the emoji and much more often. (and was my first reaction to this announcement)
"(that Slashdot is unable to reproduce)" (Score:1)
Could we have UTF-8, please, on Slashdot? If not for emoji, then for characters in non-European languages? I know people have been asking for this for years now - it's embarrassing.
Grammar (Score:1)
"Lumbersexual" in the dictionary? Really? (Score:1)
I really don't get the trend of adding the suffix "-sexual" to lifestyle choices that have nothing to do with sexuality.
"Metrosexual" makes just as little sense, but it's older so I guess we've accepted it.
What ever happened to ... (Score:1)
Smilies and emoticons ?
Meanwhile, at OED Headquarters... (Score:2)
Boss: Everyone gather round. Listen, guys, this new line of Merriam-Webster-brand phosphorescent butt plugs is killing us! If we want to stay relevant in the twenty-first century, we have to innovate, people! Who has some forward-thinking ideas for our next edition?
Worker 1: What if started a FaceBook account for every word in the dictionary?
Worker 2: What if we used a different color of ink for every part of speech? No, wait, a different scent!
Worker 3: What if we started calling ourselves OXDIC.com?
B
This is all a conspiracy (Score:2)
Swiftkey (Score:2)
How can this be ... (Score:2)
Before the "Emoji" (Score:1)
we had the graphic emoticons on instant messengers, and that was before the turn of the century. Before that (since September '82) using ASCII text, like :-)
Ohhh wait, but just like patents, now it's "on a mobile device" and it's suddenly new?
emoji, because hieroglyph was tough to spell? (Score:2)
Back to cave walls? I guess we're fueling the future of archeology.
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BUTTOCKS
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Re:Hate emojis ... (Score:4, Informative)
The vast majority of this crap is just enabling third parties to track your fucking email and texts as everyone has to download the stupid things.
I thought the whole point of the new "emoji" stuff was that they're now standard Unicode characters, so the images are part of the normal fonts on your system. If your computer has to download the image every time someone puts one in a text message, somebody is Doing It Wrong, and it isn't the person sending you the text message.
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For the last several years it hasn't been. People have downloaded apps and keyboards which provide them.
They certainly haven't defined every possible emoji in unicode ... I'm sure there are still people out there with "sparkly unicorn" and "pooping frog" emojis -- I'm pretty sure there are actual poop emojis.
So, yeah, to date, emojis are specific, not in a standard, not built into your device, and typically i
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I'm pretty sure there are actual poop emojis.
The standard Unicode poop emoji is U+1F4A9
In most renderings I've seen it's actually smiling!
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The vast majority of this crap is just enabling third parties to track your fucking email and texts as everyone has to download the stupid things.
Android has come with emojis as a system resource since 4.1 (and I assume iOS has had them built-in for similarly as long). You don't download them (and certainly not each time ... that would be incredibly weird). You can be reassured that no bandwidth has been wasted by the world (at least, not as far as emojis are concerned). (And using them as trackers? Seriously? Most apps easily have the permissions to track their users without ever having to resort to emoji-based methods, even if emoji-tracking w
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My phone has been stuck on 4.0.4 for years and will be stuck there forever, you insensitive so-and-so. Android - ya want a new windshield wiper, ya gotta buy a new model car.
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My phone has been stuck on 4.0.4 for years and will be stuck there forever, you insensitive so-and-so. Android - ya want a new windshield wiper, ya gotta buy a new model car.
http://forum.xda-developers.co... [xda-developers.com]
Fixed that for you. Android -- ya want a new windshield wiper, ya gotta install it yourself. But at least it's open and free.
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So, I guess the Chinese and Japanese have been wrong all this time, then?
Actually, yes. The amount of time wasted learning Kanji in Japanese schooling is nuts, IMO. And the affect on literacy is similarly appalling -- you can't even read a newspaper without completing secondary school, because of the need to memorise all those characters.
I'm a big fan of Japan switching over completely to hiragana. One simple phonetic alphabet for everything, anyone with a couple of years of primary school ed. can read, what's not to like? Kanji is seriously holding Japan back.
Just my two ye
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No, that's not true at all. Spoken words are comprised of 0 letters or characters, they are comprised only of sounds (phones). Other languages have fully-ideographic written forms.
I would say it differently: a word is something with at least one widely-used verbal representation (making allowances for accents, variation in voice, and tomato-"tomahto" differences).
We generally don't consider a real-life smile a word, even though that's a well-understood form of visual communication. The middle finger or
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Oh, I'm a lumberjack, and I'm okay,
I sleep all night and I work all day.