MIC:
The Oxford Dictionary’s 2015 word of the year was awarded to something that isn’t necessarily a word, though it definitely paints a picture worth, perhaps, a thousand or so of them. The “tears of joy” emoji face — featured, among other places, in a keyboard on Apple’s iOS platform — is just one of the many cartoon facial reactions used since the late 1990’s being honored with this year’s distinction.
The emoji beat out several words and phrases, including “refugee,” “lumbersexual,” “on fleek,” “Dark Web” and “sharing economy.”
But it’s not a word.
Does Kanji represent words? Do hieroglyphics? Though I have my issues with emoji and “l33tsp33k”, I need to acknowledge that I view these things as an old, educated, relatively privileged guy.
Language is an evolving thing and I’m not sure that my privilege extends to defining it.
Face it Shawn, we’re dinosaurs. 😉
Sigh…I’m not going to disagree with you.
Still…IT’S NOT A WORD! 🙂
It’s not a word. It’s an illustration.