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Finally, some recognition: 'Selfi' snaps Spanish Word of the Year

No escape from these egotistical, ubiquitous, self-indulgent self portraits

The all-encompassing "selfie" has snapped the Fundéu BBVA's Spanish word of the year title for 2014, albeit in the leaner, meaner, and adapted form of selfi.

The choice acknowledges the continuing influx of Anglicisms into Spanish, despite previous efforts to suggest that local constructs autofoto or autorretrato might serve to describe the global phenomenon of grabbing yourself (or part of your body) on a phone and slapping the result across the interwebs.

The Foundation's director general, Joaquín Muller, explained the selection team of philologists and journalists wasn't looking for "the nicest or most novel" word, but rather one with "a certain linguistic interest, either for its formation or its penetration into the spoken language".

Other words of English origin vying for the 2014 title included nomofobia (the terrifying fear of being mobeless) and apli, an alternative to the established app (from "application").

Indigenous newbies also up for consideration included árbitra (female referee), from the traditional male árbitro. The 2013 laureate escrache ("a popular demonstration against a public figure accused of serious crimes or corruption") was similarly home-grown, although hardly as popular as the triumphant selfi. ®

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