Selfie has turned out to be a word that keeps on giving. We have dronies, or selfies taken with drones; healfies, wherein fitness enthusiasts photograph themselves; and now the selfie stick, the most revolutionary selfie-taking device since arms. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Selfie Stick”
You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it. I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette. It seems like only yesterday that the word selfie suddenly sprang on the scene.
And all of a sudden we saw it everywhere and wondered if it was going to stick around.
And of course it is. It’s got great staying power and it’s spawning other words like droney.
Droney, this is a picture you take of yourself with a drone.
Exactly.
I’ve also seen healthy, which is a self-portrait of your hair, and belfy, which is one of your butt.
But I don’t think that those have staying power.
But one that I came across recently that you’ve probably seen as well, too, Grant, is selfie stick.
Oh, yeah.
These are all over Asia.
This was one of my big words for 2014, actually.
Selfie stick, which is also called a monopod.
Ooh, nice.
You’ve seen that?
It’s one of these telescoping sticks that you use to hold out your phone so that you can take a better selfie of yourself and somebody else.
Right. You get more of the background, right?
Yes. Yes. And these are all over Asia.
In fact, South Korea is starting to regulate them because they operate with a Bluetooth system.
And there’s some of them that they are afraid will jam medical devices.
A selfie stick.
I think that’s going to stick, at least until we figure out a better way to take long-distance shots of ourselves.
I think so, too. And I don’t have any problems with selfie. I know that was the word of the year for some dictionary makers in 2013, I believe.
Yeah.
But it’s a great, useful word. It’s got a lot of purpose, and it kind of reflects the spirit of the age.
It does, doesn’t it? Yeah, I was afraid that it might just be a flash in the pan, but I don’t think so.
What’s the word or language that you’ve heard or invented yourself that you’re sure is going to have staying power that you want to share with us and all of our listeners?
Let us know, 877-929-9673,
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