Who invented the word selfie?

Selfies (self-portraits) have long existed in painting… even though Van Gogh didn’t quite own an iPhone.

The first known photographic selfie was a daguerreotype by American pioneer Robert Cornelius, shot in 1839. That first selfie was also the first known photographic portrait.

Although self-portraits have been around for a very long time, it’s not until 2002 that the word selfie appeared on an Australian website (online forum of ABC Online). However, nobody quite knows who coined the word, who seems to have been used on MySpace and other early social networks at about that time.

Today, selfie is one of the most used buzzwords on the Internet, and even monkeys indulge in the practice!