The Oxford Dictionary selected the ‘Face with Tears of Joy’ emoji as its 2015 Word of the Year. The Word of the Year is a word that reflects the ‘ethos, mood, or preoccupations’ of language during the previous year, according to the Economic Times. The ‘Face with Tears of Joy’ emoji was chosen because it symbolizes the increase in emoji usage in recent years.
Reactions to the news has varied from sarcastic comments about how ‘the Word of the Year isn’t a word’ to linguistically-based responses about the development of our language.
I'm deeply upset that @OxfordWords word of the year is "?". My vote would have gone to "lumbersexual". #lumbersexual #wordoftheyear #noEmoji
— Ben McKee (@benamckee) November 17, 2015
All those years of studying linguistics have finally paid off in explaining to colleagues why ? is worthy of being @OED's #WordOfTheYear
— Katka Lapelosová (@Its_Katka) November 17, 2015
The #OxfordDictionary #WordoftheYear isn't even a word. This is how far our language has devolved. ? https://t.co/ewDHQ9Cu0O
— Bill Wixey (@BillWixey) November 17, 2015
Our prediction for 2016's #WordOfTheYear: ?
— Taco Bell Canada (@TacoBellCanada) November 17, 2015
Oxford Dictionary #WordOfTheYear an emoji. World may not become an #Idiocracy in my lifetime, but it won't miss by much…
— Thomas Keister (@thomaskeister) November 17, 2015