Antedating of "selfie"

[Hugo]

"Selfie" has been added to Oxford Dictionaries Online in today's August quarterly update (not yet in OED):
http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/august-2013-update/

ODO, "early 21st century":
http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/selfie

Urban Dictionary, 29 July 2009:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Selfie&defid=4142844

---

The earliest I found is in ABC Online Forum (Dr. Karl's Self-Service Science), 13 September 2002:

[Begin excerpt]
From: Hopey ®   13/09/2002 15:19:29
Subject: re: Dissolvable stitches       post id: 169902
Um, drunk at a mates 21st, I tripped ofer and landed lip first (with front teeth coming a very close second) on a set of steps. I had a hole about 1cm long right through my bottom lip. And sorry about the focus, it was a selfie.
[End excerpt]

Source: http://www2b.abc.net.au/science/k2/stn/archives/archive32/newposts/169/topic169861.shtm

The date looks plausible, the oldest in the Internet Archive is 2004: http://wayback.archive.org/web/20040117090107/http://www2b.abc.net.au/science/k2/stn/archives/archive32/newposts/169/topic169861.shtm

Here's the selfie: http://wayback.archive.org/web/20040118000958/http://mcs.une.edu.au/~nhope/lip.jpg

Oh, and the EXIF information embedded in the photo file is also dated 13th September 2002.

---

Hugo

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org