Oxford dictionary named “selfie” as the 2013 Word of the Year. Selfie had some strong competition from twerk, but prevailed. Thank heavens for that!1
Oxford Dictionaries said their language analysis program collects around 150 million words of current English in use each month. This allowed them to identify the rapid growth in the use of selfie, and led to it earning its designation as the word of the year.
The usage of the word selfie increased 17000% in the twelve months preceding the annoucement, according to Oxford Dictionaries, which is regarded by many as the definitive record of the English language. In 2013 it grew from a buzzword found most often on social media sites to a mainstream usage to mean any self-portrait photo.
Selfie is defined in the dictionary as “a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website”. The first known usage of selfie occured in September 2002 on an Australian forum post.
Reference:
http://gadgets.ndtv.com/internet/news/selfie-is-oxfords-word-of-the-year-448153 for details.