It’s time to celebrate, Internet denizens. We don’t need anyone to legitimize our hobbies, but it’s nice when the more traditional establishments make note of our various and sundry online endeavors. Today is one of those times. Oxford Dictionaries has just named GIF their 2012 Word of the Year. Not the image format, which turned 25 this year, but the verb. As in, to GIF, and GIFing. I’m not even kidding.
Oxford Dictionaries explains their choice:
“The GIF, a compressed file format for images that can be used to create simple, looping animations, turned 25 this year, but like so many other relics of the 80s, it has never been trendier,” notes Katherine Martin, Head of the US Dictionaries Program at Oxford University Press USA. “GIF celebrated a lexical milestone in 2012, gaining traction as a verb, not just a noun. The GIF has evolved from a medium for pop-cultural memes into a tool with serious applications including research and journalism, and its lexical identity is transforming to keep pace.”
Without further adieu, here’s a bunch of GIFs celebrating their victory.
[geekovision id=167]
(Oxford Dictionaries via Wired)
- Happy 25th birthday, GIF
- Twitter finally put a stop to animated GIF avatars
- This is an analog turntable for watching animated GIFs
