Tech terms ‘selfie’, ‘phablet’, ‘digital detox’ and ‘internet of things’ have now taken their place in the Oxford Dictionaries online, joining ‘ominshambles’, the word the Oxford English Dictionary voted as its word of the year last year.
Oxford Dictionaries online defines its new tech terms:
Selfie: a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website.
Phablet: a smartphone having a screen which is intermediate in size, between that of a typical smartphone and a tablet computer.
Digital detox: a period of time during which a person refrains from using electronic devices, such as smartphones or computers, regarded as an opportunity to reduce stress or focus on social interaction in the physical world.
Internet of things: a proposed development of the internet in which everyday objects have network connectivity, allowing them to send and receive data.
Omnishambles is defined as “a situation that has been comprehensively mismanaged, characterised by a string of blunders and miscalculations”. Oxford Dictionaries online credits the British satirical TV series The Thick of It as the first user of the word.
Selfie image via Shutterstock
