This week’s theme
Words that have entered the language during the last 25 years

This week’s words
upcycling
selfie
mansplain
gamification
bingeable

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(SEL-fee)

MEANING:

noun: A self-portrait, typically taken with a phone camera.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Old English self. Earliest documented use: 2002.

USAGE:

“On December 11, engineers directed InSight [NASA’s Mars lander] to take its first selfie.”
Chelsea Gohd and Jake Parks; InSight Sets up Shop on Mars; Astronomy (Milwaukee, Wisconsin); Apr 2019.

NOTES:

A photograph taken by a cell phone is called a selfie, not cellfie (or cellphie), though that would make sense too. The selfie craze has spread widely. Our fellow creatures on this planet have gotten into the game as well, though it’s not known whether they post those pictures on their Instagram (and make a living as an influencer).
Robots too have caught the selfie bug (see the usage example above)! Not sure about other robots, but let’s not be too hard on InSight, the Mars lander. If I traveled 300 million miles to reach some place, I too might take a selfie or two.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: