Lifestyle

OMG it’s official: the English language is totes dead

Nov 18, 2015

Call me a pedant or a stickler, but this is just ridiculous. For years we’ve put up with silly portmanteaus like “man-boobs” and acronyms like LOL being added to that most esteemed tome, The Oxford Dictionary, but it seems the English language has not officially deteriorated so far that symbols will do instead.

Time magazine reports that Oxford Dictionaries have made history by announcing that this year’s “Word of the Year” will not be an actual word.

Instead, it will be this:

Yes, that’s right, it’s the “crying with laughter” emoji.

The official word from Oxford is that: “Although emoji have been a staple of texting teens for some time, emoji culture exploded into the global mainstream over the past year. Emoji have come to embody a core aspect of living in a digital world that is visually driven, emotionally expressive, and obsessively immediate.”

The “face with tears of joy”, “LOL” or “laughing” emoji is the most popular of the little icons that have been since at least 1997, but have become popular in recent years with grown ups who should know better. It apparently comprises 20 per cent of all emojis used in the US and UK.

We’re fairly sure that this is exactly the sort of language up with which Winston Churchill would not have put, but it is certainly a sign of the times.