The letter E and what it brought with it.

The Oxford Word of the Year 2015 is…

That’s right – for the first time ever, the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year is a pictograph:, officially called the ‘Face with Tears of Joy’ emoji, though you may know it by other names. There were other strong contenders from a range of fields but was chosen as the ‘word’ that best reflected the ethos, mood, and preoccupations of 2015. Emojis (the plural can be either emoji or emojis) have been around since the late 1990s, but 2015 saw their use, and the use of the word emoji, increase hugely.

A brief history of emoji

What is an Emoji? An emoji is ‘a small digital image or icon. It helps to express an idea or emotion in electronic communication’; the term emoji is a loanword from Japanese, and comes from e ‘picture’ + moji ‘letter, the character’. The similarity to the English word emoticon has helped its memorability and rise in use, though the resemblance is actually entirely coincidental: emoticon(a facial expression composed of keyboard characters, such as ;), rather than a stylized image) comes from the English words emotion and icon.