Dear Concordia News Boss, So Oxford, that venerable etymological tastemaker, has chosen an emoji as 2015’s word of the year ("Oxford Dictionaries selects 'tears of joy' emoji as 'word' of the year").

Whether you enjoy adding the fun and colourful icons to your words or not, emojis have become an integral part of mobile messaging. In honour of World Emoji Day, here are 17 facts about emojis: 1.

An emoji is Oxford Dictionaries word of the year and that just solidified the lack of faith I have in the future of expression through words — Pfizer Crane (@GideonSlaygo) November 17, 2015 ...

That compares to 4 and 9 per cent respectively the year before. Likewise the use of the word emoji, which first entered the English language in 1997, has more than tripled in 2015 compared to 2014.

But while that emoji is top "word" - following in the footsteps of "vape", "selfie" and "omnishambles" - there are no plans to include the icons themselves in any Oxford dictionary.

You may think that emoji has something to do with conveying emotion, however the similarity in the two words is entirely coincidental. The word is actually Japanese, combining the kanji for ...