While some see it as a sign of the times, others are outraged at the suggestion that the spoken and written word do not have the wherewithal to come up with one single word that can be called "word of the year'. In fact, such is the situation that many have even responded to the news by using the very newsmaker as a reaction — would you laugh? Would you cry? You'd probably end up doing both. This is the first time that Oxford Dictionaries has chosen an emoji pictograph, commonly referred to as an emoticon, as its 2015 Word of the Year after it made history due to its popularity on social media and instant messaging. Experts at Oxford Dictionaries said the symbol "embodies a core aspect of living in a digital world that is visually driven, emotionally expressive, and obsessively immediate". The symbol showing a yellow smiley face weeping tears of laughter made history as a result of its popularity on social media and instant messaging. It is the first time the list has included an entry that is not a word. The digital age seems to have a strong influence on this year's list with "ad block" and "dark web" reflecting the "ethos, mood or preoccupations" of the modern day. The "face with tears of joy" emoji was selected in conjunction with technology firm SwiftKey, whose research found it was the most-used around the world in the last year. According to SwiftKey, the emoji made up 20 per cent of all the emojis used in the UK in 2015, and 17 per cent of those in the US — a sharp rise from 4 per cent and 9 per cent, respectively, it had clocked in 2014. "Refugee" also made the shortlist thanks to current political situation, along with "Brexit". "You can see how traditional alphabet scripts have been struggling to meet the rapid-fire, visually focused demands of 21st Century communication. It's not surprising that a pictographic script like emoji has stepped in to fill those gaps — it's flexible, immediate, and infuses tone beautifully," said Casper Grathwohl, President of 'Oxford Dictionaries'. "As a result emoji are becoming an increasingly rich form of communication, one that transcends linguistic borders. When (British tennis champ) Andy Murray tweeted out his wedding itinerary entirely in emoji, for example, he shared a subtle mix of his feelings about the day directly with fans around the world," he said. "It was highly effective in expressing his emotions,” he explained." he added. An emoji is a loanword from Japanese, which means ‘a small digital image or icon used to express an idea or emotion in electronic communication’. With inputs from PTI
