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LONDON -- In what was described as an unusually unanimous decision, selfie has been chosen as word of the year by the publishers of the Oxford English Dictionary, beating out twerk and a host of other Internet and social-media-related terms, such as bitcoin, that have exploded onto the verbal scene in recent years.

It seems like everyone who is anyone has posted a selfie somewhere on the Internet, Oxford Dictionaries said on its blog, without offering an accompanying selfie of the writer. If it is good enough for the Obamas or the pope, then it is good enough for Word of the Year.

Use of selfie, to mean a self-portrait typically snapped with a smartphone and shared over social networks, has risen 17,000% in frequency over the past 12 months, Oxford Dictionaries said. Twerk experienced a notable midyear surge, thanks to Miley Cyrus, but has not proved quite as popular or universal.

Although it was the runaway winner for the panel charged with selecting the 2013 word of the year, selfie was already on Oxford Dictionaries list of words to watch last year, like a song moving up the Billboard singles chart. It made it into Oxford Dictionaries online version three months ago, but hasnt yet broken through to the magisterial Oxford English Dictionary, or OED.

Perhaps surprising to some, the term was first recorded in Australia, not the U.S. or Britain, in 2002. An abashed and probably hungover participant in an Internet forum posted a self-portrait taken after a drunken accident on a set of stairs.

I had a hole ... right through my bottom lip, the post said. And sorry about the focus, it was a selfie.

Adding the suffix -ie is a characteristic linguistic trait Down Under, as Oxford Dictionaries noted and as any visitor quickly discovers. Un-self-conscious antipodeans really do say barbie (on which one slips an extra shrimp), cozzie (for swimming costume, or swimsuit to an American) and, of course, Aussie.

As for selfie, early evidence shows a variant spelling with a -y ending, but the -ie form is vastly more common today and has become the accepted spelling of the word, Oxford Dictionaries declared definitively, adding, It could be argued that the use of the -ie suffix helps to turn an essentially narcissistic enterprise into something rather more endearing.

The triumph of selfie is part of the larger and seemingly unstoppable proliferation of words and technological terms that lexicographers have struggled to keep up with. In August, Oxford Dictionaries added terms such as phablet and digital detox to its online version.

On the short-list with selfie for word of the year was bitcoin, the online currency, and showrooming, the practice of checking out a product in a brick-and-mortar store, then going home and ordering it at a cheaper price on the Internet.

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'Selfie': 2013's word of the year

It's that time of the year when Oxford Dictionaries declares a Word of the Year, and this time, the venerable dictionary is turning the camera inward.

The winner for 2013 is selfie, defined as a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website. Oxford University Press notes that its U.S. and U.K. editions declared the winner jointly, whereas in some years they each choose their own words.

Selfie beat out seven other shortlisted wordsthree of which are also tech-relatedincluding the digital currency bitcoin; the Netflix habit known as binge-watch; the practice of showrooming in a store before buying online; a small furry mammal called olinguito; a U.K. housing penalty called bedroom tax; the provocative dance known as twerk; and a term for synthetic meat, or schmeat.

Oxford traces the origins of the word selfie to a 2002 forum post, in which the poster apologizes for a blurry drunken photo, explaining that it was a selfie.

Words don't have to be entirely new to earn consideration. They must simply rise to prominence in a given year, as with last year's selection of GIF for the U.S. edition. While the word selfie started popping up on sites such as Flickrin some cases spelled selfyas early as 2004, Oxford says usage finally became widespread in mainstream media sources around 2012, and was added to the online dictionary this year.

The use of the diminutive -ie suffix is notable, as it helps to turn an essentially narcissistic enterprise into something rather more endearing, Oxford's Judy Pearsall said in a statement.

Note that the Word of the Year only applies to Oxford's online dictionaries. Winning the award doesn't guarantee entry into the print edition Oxford English Dictionary, through Oxford says selfie is currently being considered for future inclusion.

Lead image: Jimmy Larsson/Flickr/Creative Commons

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'Selfie' strikes a pose as Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year

The word "selfie" was named the word of the year by the Oxford Dictionary, having increased its usage by 17,000 percent since 2012.

The Polaroid of the 21st century, better known as a "selfie," has taken social media by storm. And now it's taking the English language too. The publishers of the Oxford Dictionaries announced Tuesday "selfie" to be the word of the year for 2013.

The word of the year is an honor given to a word that commemorates the ingenuity of the English language. And this year "selfie" beat out words like "twerk," the provocative dance move that pop star Miley Cyrus spiraled into the spotlight with her VMA performance; "showrooming," the act of visiting a store to view an item only to go online and buy it at a lower price; and "binge-watch," the practice of watching episodes of a TV show in succession.

[READ: Americans to Immigrants:Speak English]

Everyone from Beyonce to the Pope has been spotted taking a "selfie," so its no wonder the word has been awarded dual nation acclaim. Defined as a "photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website," "selfie" is the quintessential word of 2013.

The use and frequency of the word "selfie" in the English language has increased by 17,000 percent in the last year, editors of the Oxford Dictionaries told the BBC.

Though the use of the word "selfie" took off in 2012, the origin of the word came a decade before in 2002 when a man posted a picture of his face with lacerations all over it, to an Australian online forum. He apologized for the fact the photo was blurry and out of focus by saying that it wasn't because he was drunk but because it was a "selfie."

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Even the spelling of the word supports the claim that the word was first introduced down under. "Australian English has something of a penchant for -ie words barbie for barbecue, firie for firefighter, tinnie for a can of beer so this helps to support the evidence for 'selfie' having originated in Australia," Oxford Dictionaries Editorial Director Judy Pearsall said in a press release.

"Selfie" has been embraced so thoroughly that this year the word of the year was the same for both the U.S. and the U.K., where typically the two English speaking nations are each assigned their own.

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Oxford Dictionary Names "Selfie" as Word of the Year

Other shortlisted buzzwords included 'twerk' and 'binge-watch' -- meaning watching lots of TV.

'Schmeat', meaning a form of meat synthetically produced from biological tissue, was also a contender.

Selfie can actually be traced back to 2002 when it was used in an Australian online forum.

The word gained momentum throughout the English-speaking world in 2013 as it evolved from a social media buzzword to mainstream shorthand for a self-portrait photograph.

Its linguistic productivity is already evident in the creation of numerous related spin-off terms showcasing particular parts of the body like helfie (a picture of one's hair) and belfie (a picture of one's posterior); a particular activity -- welfie (workout selfie) and drelfie (drunken selfie), and even items of furniture -- shelfie and bookshelfie.

"Using the Oxford Dictionaries language research programme, which collects around 150 million words of current English in use each month, we can see a phenomenal upward trend in the use of selfie in 2013, and this helped to cement its selection as Word of the Year," Judy Pearsall, Editorial Director for Oxford Dictionaries, said.

'Twerk' became popular courtesy Miley Cyrus' MTV VMA performance.

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Selfie is the word of the year! (Psst! The Pope's got one too)