selca

Selca means selfie. It comes from the Korean word 셀카 (selka), a shortened blend of the English words “self” and “camera.” In English you’ll mostly hear it from K-pop fans, where it often means a selfie an idol posts for fans.

What does selca mean?

A selca is a photo you take of yourself, usually with your phone held at arm’s length or pointed at a mirror. That’s the whole meaning: it’s a selfie with a Korean name.

What makes the word worth knowing is where it’s used. Outside K-pop and Korean pop culture, most English speakers just say “selfie.” Inside the fandom, “selca” is the normal word, and it often points to idols specifically. When fans say “he finally posted a selca,” they mean a photo he took himself, not a professional shoot or a photo someone else snapped.

How to use selca

Selca works like any other noun. The plural is selcas.

• “He dropped three selcas after the concert and the fandom is losing it.”
• “My hair is finally behaving, so I took about forty selcas before class.”
• “That’s a selca, not a candid. You can see her arm.”
• “It’s selca day, so post yours under the fandom hashtag.”

Where the word comes from

Korean often builds new words out of clipped English ones, a style usually called Konglish. 셀카 is one of them: sel from “self,” ka from “camera.” English-speaking K-pop fans then borrowed the Korean word back, and English-language K-pop blogs were already using “selca” for idol selfies by the early 2010s. Nobody has pinned down a first use in English, so be wary of any exact year you see quoted.

In Korean it sounds roughly like “sel-kah.” English speakers usually say SEL-kuh.

What is selca day?

Selca day is a fan tradition: people post their own selfies under a fandom hashtag, often next to a photo of their favorite member. Each fandom picks its own day, and many repeat it every month. BTS fans, for example, post under #ARMYSelcaDay.

Selca vs. selfie

They mean the same thing. Say “selca” when you’re talking about K-pop or Korean celebrities, or when you’re chatting with people in the fandom. Anywhere else, “selfie” is clearer, and “selca” can come across as a fandom in-joke.

Related terms

• bias: your favorite member of a K-pop group
• bias wrecker: the member who keeps tempting you away from your bias
• fan cam: fan-shot video that follows one performer
• aegyo: deliberately cute expressions and behavior
• photo dump: a big batch of photos posted at once

See more terms like this in our K-pop slang dictionary.