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Marilyn Presor knows what a selfie is, but said her arms are too short to take a good one.

Presor, 79, said she learned about the 2013 Word of the Year while watching the Today Show Tuesday morning. A selfie is a self-portrait, usually taken with a smart phone and posted over social networks like Facebook.

"I don't have a smart phone," said Presor, who lives in Millcreek Township. "I did, but I gave it to my son because it was too complicated."

Presor and other members of LifeWorks Erie's Tuesday Book Club were asked about selfie and two other finalists for the Oxford University Press' Word of the Year.

Most of the words considered were Internet and social media-related.

Larry Johnson, 64, said his granddaughter posts selfies and other photos -- including some of him -- on her Facebook page.

"At first I was surprised to see my photo on there, then I found it wasn't a big deal," said Johnson, taking a break from discussing David McCullough's book, "The Johnstown Flood."

Neither Johnson nor Presor were familiar with Bitcoin, a type of online currency that was a finalist for Word of the Year.

"I never buy anything when I'm online," Presor said. "I play slot machines, usually."

Johnson wasn't familiar with another Word of the Year finalist, showrooming, which means to check out a product in a store, then buy it online at a cheaper price.

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Erie book clubbers ponder Word of the Year

With the publishers of the Oxford English Dictionary declaring "selfie" the word of the year on Tuesday, the Pioneer Press decided to give folks on the streets of downtown St. Paul a chance to take a self-portrait with a smartphone.

Some people were immediately game, a few reluctant and a couple taken aback when asked if they knew what a selfie was.

Sammy Echols of Minneapolis said he'd never heard of or taken a selfie in his life.

"I don't get into this stuff all the time. Usually if someone asked me to do this, I'd run the other way and think they're crazy," he said.

For Edward Neumann, decorum was the main concern.

"If it's proper, I don't see any problem with it," he said.

Lydia Bellanger of the White Earth Indian Reservation had heard the word before but had never taken one.

"How's this work?" she asked, smiling.

Trayvon Smaller of St. Paul has taken selfies in the past but was not a big fan.

"It's kind of like saying you're too cocky, confident. You're showing off a little bit," he said. "It's kind of annoying when people take, like, six selfies and put them in a collage."

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Word of the Year: St. Paulites celebrate 'selfie' by taking one

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LONDON (AP) - November 18, 2013 (WPVI) -- Michelle Obama shared one with her "first dog" Bo, Hillary Clinton tweeted one with her daughter Chelsea. Now "selfie" - the smartphone self-portrait - has been declared word of the year for 2013 by Britain's Oxford University Press.

The publisher of the Oxford dictionaries says "selfie" saw a huge jump in usage in the past year, bursting from the confines of Instagram and Twitter to become mainstream shorthand for any self-taken photograph.

Oxford usually assigns a separate word of the year to the U.S. and to the U.K., but it said "selfie" captured the imagination on both sides of the Atlantic this year.

Also making the shortlist was "binge-watch," a verb that describes watching many episodes of a TV show in rapid succession.

(Copyright 2013 WPVI-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)

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Oxford Dictionaries crowns 'selfie' word of the year for 2013, beating 'twerk,' 'Bitcoin'

(11-19 10:16)

The word selfie'' _ the smartphone self-portrait _ has been declared word of the year for 2013, according to Britain's Oxford University Press. The publisher of the Oxford dictionaries said the use of selfie'' jumped in the past year, bursting from the confines of Instagram and Twitter to become mainstream shorthand for any self-taken photograph, AP reports. Researchers behind the renowned dictionaries pick a prominent word or expression in the English language each year that best reflects the mood of the times. Previous words of the year have included unfriend'' in 2009, credit crunch'' in 2008, carbon footprint'' in 2007 and Sudoku'' in 2005. Judy Pearsall, the editorial director for Oxford Dictionaries, said selfie'' appeared to have been first used in 2002 on an Australian online forum, and the hashtag #selfie appeared on the photo-sharing website Flickr in 2004. But usage wasn't widespread until around 2012, when `selfie' was being used commonly in mainstream media,'' she said. Australian English sometimes uses the suffix -ie'' _ such as barbie for barbeque and tinnie for a can of beer _ which helps to explain where ``selfie'' may have come from, Pearsall added. Oxford usually assigns a separate word of the year to the US and to the UK, but it said selfie'' captured the imagination on both sides of the Atlantic this year. The term beat other buzzwords including twerk,'' the sexually provocative dance move that got a huge boost as a result of a performance by pop star Miley Cyrus; showrooming,'' the practice of visiting a shop to look at a product before buying it online at a lower price; and ``Bitcoin,'' the digital currency that gained widespread media attention. Also making the shortlist was binge-watch,'' a verb that describes watching many episodes of a TV show in rapid succession. The words were chosen by a research program that monitors online content and collects around 150 million words of English in use each month.

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Dictionary favorite is selfie'