4 Dec 2013 | Copywriting | In the news | Word of the week | Stratton Craig

2013, in a word

The Oxford English Dictionary has announced that the word of 2013 is ‘selfie’. At first listen, it sounds as annoying as the action it denotes – taking a picture of yourself. But ‘selfie’ is also an example of language’s malleability, and the frequency with which it’s used means copywriters can’t afford to ignore it, along with a host of other new terms.

‘Selfie’ fought off tough competition to take the top spot. It was chosen because of the speed with which it’s taken off – in the last year, use of the word in the English language has jumped by 17,000 percent. Fittingly, the first use of the word has been traced to an online forum back in 2002.

Below you can find some of the other contenders for word of the year – terms that every contemporary copywriter should know:

• Bedroom tax. Unless you’re campaigning for the Labour Party you’re unlikely to use this term professionally, but you’ll hear it again and again. Whatever your politics, it’s a great example of the importance of language to campaigns of any sort.
• Bitcoin. You might well be trading them in the future, so it’s important to know your bitcoins from your pounds. This new noun refers to a digital currency that spiked in the middle of the year, but now seems to have mellowed.
• Schmeat. Vegetarians turn away. Schmeat is synthetic meat produced from biological tissue, and the first in-vitro burger was cooked as recently as August. If you’re good at writing about food, you won’t struggle to pick out the USPs
• Showrooming. In case you hadn’t realised the importance of digital marketing, showrooming means visiting shops to check out products, before buying them at a lower price online.
• Twerk. Twerk is a verb, and not a very good one. We’d recommend avoiding it at all cost.

If you need a team of copywriters with a real grasp of today’s English language, contact Stratton Craig to find out more about our services.