selfie

American  

[sel-fee] / ˈsɛl fi /

noun

Informal.

1. a photograph taken with a smartphone or other digital camera by a person who is also in the photograph, especially for posting on a social media website.

   celebrities sharing selfies on Twitter.

---

Etymology

Origin of selfie

First recorded in 2000–05; self + -ie

Explanation

If you flip your cellphone around to take a photo of yourself, you'll end up with a selfie. When you visit Paris, don't forget to take a selfie at night with the Eiffel Tower in the background! Selfie is a true 21st-century word, coined around 2002 in Australia. This type of slang word formation — known as a hypocorism, or nickname — is incredibly popular in that country, where a mosquito is a mozzie and a present is a prezzie. By 2013, using cellphones to snap casual self-portraits was so common that the Oxford English Dictionary named selfie its word of the year.

Example Sentences

Selfie deaths are quite rare, with a peak of 68 in 2019.

From Slate • Aug. 4, 2024

Selfie videos that Roy had posted online are also shown.

From New York Times • Jan. 25, 2024

Seattle’s Selfie Museum is part of a chain branded Original Selfie Museum, a somewhat confusing moniker as there are nine of them, the first of which was in Denver.

From Seattle Times • Jan. 22, 2024

Instead of focusing on Hollywood’s boldface names, the new TMZ Selfie Tour gives someone else the star treatment: You.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 16, 2023

In his 2017 book Rajapaksa: The Sinhala Selfie, Mr Perera highlights the Rajapaksa family's role in the island's politics and how Mahinda groomed himself for power.

From BBC • May 12, 2022