‘Fotobam’ is Filipino Word of the Year 2016

Among 10 words that have been nominated to become the Salita ng Taon or “Filipino World of the Year,” it was ‘Fotobam’ by History professor Michael Charleston Chua which gained the recognition in Sawikaan 2016 at the Filipinas Institute of Translation, held in University of the Philippines  Diliman.

FOTOBAM. Filipino Word of the Year 2016. Image by sunstar.com.ph

The word fotobam is a word derived from  the English word ‘photobomb,’ which means to ruin (a photograph) by appearing in the image without the photographer’s knowledge, as defined by dictionary.com.

The said word became significant in the country when it first surfaced in the Torre de Manila issue which was hailed as pambansang photobomb (national photobomb) when it earned flak from netizens as the residential building was said to have ruined the view of the Luneta Park, which was a main attraction in Manila.

According to Prof. Chua, the alias became a stepping stone for the issue of Torre de Manila to be of an important concern for the Filipinos which also made it a relevant topic for discussion, as reported by Rappler.com.

Also, according to Prof. Chua, the revised spelling was made in recognition of Carl Angelo Ruiz and Jong Gutierrez, students from De La Salle College of Saint Benilde, who used it for their documentary.

Other words that made it as finalists are hugot (word used to express feelings wittily), viral (anything in social media that spreads rapidly), tukod (traffic jam), milenyal (millennial; generation of people born in the late 1980s and have reached adulthood in the 2000s, netizen (citizen of the internet), bully, meme (witty expression in the internet using a combination of text, photo, and video), foundling (abandoned baby), and lumad (collective term for indigenous peoples in Mindanao), as cited in The Philippine Star’s report.

Part of the Sawikaan 2016 is the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF), National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), and UP College of Education. The criteria for judging for choosing the word of the year comes from 50% of the scores given by the judges on the written description of the nominated words and 50% from the presentation.

 

Source: Rappler, philstar.com