Did You Miss It?

No, not the first day of summer, which this year in the Northern Hemisphere was June 21. Officially it's called the summer solstice, the annual moment when the sun is at its highest point in the sky. It happened yesterday at 6:07 a.m. EDT (eastern daylight time). 

I meant National Selfie Day which was also June 21. Folks were encouraged to take creative and appropriate selfies to share on social media. We usually take our own pics, as I did here, or together (see below). 

According to the National Selfie-Day website (yes, there's a site), the day was created June 21, 2014 by disk jockey Rick McNeely from Fishbowl Radio Network in Arlington TX. According to the website, DJ Rick considers it "a holiday." (That seems an odd choice of definition to me.)

In 2013, the word, selfie, entered the Oxford English Dictionary and was named "the word of the year." The OED, published by the Oxford University press, is the main historical record of the English language. It defined selfie as: "a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website." In July 2014, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary selected selfie as the "word of the day." 

How and where did the term originate, I wanted to know and, of course, found an answer online. While not absolutely certain it's the truth, it was nonetheless an interesting read. 
Here's the story. 

According to several sites, the OED stated that "selfie" was first used in September 2002 to describe a photo posted on a public forum run by the Australian Broadcast Network (ABC). An Australian man (identified as Hopey) described a photo he took of himself while drunk at a birthday party:

"Um, drunk at a mates 21st, I tripped ofer [sic] and landed lip first (with front teeth coming a very close second) on a set of steps," said the posting. I had a hole right through my bottom lip. And sorry about the focus, it was a selfie." 

Apparently, some linguists (those word detectives) weren't surprised that "selfie," originated in Australia where the ie suffix has long been used to create slang terms (called hypocoristics). Words like barbie (barbecue), sickie (sick day) mozzie (mosquito), lollies (sweets), sunnies (sunglasses), flannie (flannel shirt), rellie (relative) and even Aussie (Australian)..

ABC News later found Hopey (Nathan Hope) who was reportedly amazed that his post had become such a news item. According to Hope, it wasn't really a new word: "it's something that was just common slang at the time, used to describe a picture of yourself."

No, we didn't take a selfie yesterday; we've taken many others (so far) this year . . .

Yes, we expect to be taking more before the year ends. For us, it's a fun way to remember special places and times. (Our results are always better than when others offer to take a photo for us.)

How about you — do you take selfies 😊 too ?

Enjoy your weekend, Everyone.