NEW WORDS

One of the consequences of the internet is the spread of new words in the English language. Oxford Dictionaries, who know a thing or two about words, has just crowned "selfie" as 2013's word of the year. Apparently it means a photo taken of yourself and put onto social media. The new pope took one in August, which subsequently went viral.

Other shortlisted words included schmeat (a form of meat synthetically produced from biological tissue), twerk (the dance routine made famous by Miley Cyrus), binge-watch (watching lots of TV),  showrooming (looking at a product physically before buying it online) and bitcoin (the virtual currency which may or may not take off in the future).

I can safely say that although I use a fair number of words, not least in this blog, I have never used any of the above.

Walter Blotscher