Oxford University Press chose GIF as its 2012 U.S. Word of the Year.
The choice referred to GIF not only as a file format, but also as a newly popular verb meaning to create or share a GIF. Oxford Dictionaries USA said the word captured the rapid growth of short, looping visual reactions across online communication. The announcement reflected usage trends in American English rather than a vote on the technology’s technical importance.
GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format. CompuServe introduced it in 1987 as a compact way to display images online, and its support for simple animation later made it a defining format of early web culture. The format became especially popular for reaction clips, memes, and brief excerpts from television or film.
A common mix-up is confusing the Word of the Year with a pronunciation ruling. Oxford’s selection did not settle whether GIF begins with a hard or soft “G”; that debate continued because creator Steve Wilhite favored the soft-G pronunciation, while many speakers use the hard-G sound suggested by “graphics.”