Oxford says “selfies” are now a real thing, “phablets” too

It’s one thing to say a word when it’s jargon, and another if it’s slang, but when a word is truly part of the dictionary, it is safe to use without being judged, and that’s now true of “selfie.”

Oxford Dictionaries is making an update to its online dictionary, with quite a few of the new words based in the world of technology.

For instance, “phablet” is now an official word, even if you don’t agree with the term applied to phones big enough to be considered tablets.

The term for staying away from smartphones, computers, and tablets, and jumping back into the real world is also now a word, and that’s “digital detox.” If you have one, make sure to come back to our site to see what you missed.

Offices have moved beyond the whole no external USB sticks thing, and have started to embrace the practice of letting employees bringing their own device, and that is, too, a real word – “BYOD” – or rather, an initialism that everyone can use safely.

Also here is “emoji,” which are extended emoticons made from digital images and go beyond the basic 🙂 and 🙁 though some of us will keep using emoticons regardless.

Geeks who scream on the internet can now say “squee” loudly without being told it’s not a real word, and Cisco will be keen to find out that the “Internet of things” is now a real, err, thing, too.

And finally, there’s “selfie.”

Oxford says that this is “a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website,” which Instagram has helped to inspire.

Someone will have to tell Apple so that it stops correcting “selfie” to “selfless.” Paging Apple.