GIF is a noun, a verb, and also word of the year

GIF is no longer just an acronym for graphic interchange format—apparently, the word has been a legitimate noun since the 1980s, has been recognized as a verb this year, and has even been named the word of the year for 2012 by lexicographers at Oxford American Dictionaries.

 

According to Oxford, the word celebrated its 25th anniversary as a noun just last June and is defined as "a lossless format in compressing image files," though most people will know it as those funny moving pictures that memes are made of.

 

"GIF celebrated a lexical milestone in 2012, gaining traction as a verb, not just a noun," blogged Katherine Martin, a lexicographer who was part of the Word of the Year selection panel.

 

"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," she added.

 

Other words that contended for the title this year were Eurogeddon, defined as "the potential financial collapse of the European Union countries that have adopted the euro"; YOLO, an acronym for you only live once; and Higgs Boson, "a subatomic particle whose existence is predicted by the theory that unified the weak and electromagnetic interactions."

 

Meanwhile, the Oxford Dictionaries awarded the British word of the year title to omnishambles, which it defines as "a situation that has been comprehensively mismanaged, characterized by a string of blunders and miscalculations." –Amanda Lago/KG, GMA News