Youth Word of the Year (Germany)

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The word of the year for young people is a word that has been selected annually since 2008 by a jury headed by Langenscheidt Verlag, which has been part of Pons since 2019 .

Selection process

Proposals for the youth word of the year can be submitted on the Internet, these are then narrowed down in a multi-stage process, ultimately a jury votes on the youth word. The following selection criteria are given: “linguistic creativity”, “originality”, “spread of the word” and “social and cultural events”.

story

With the election of the Youth Word of the Year, Langenscheidt-Verlag advertises its lexicon 100 percent youth language every year . After the publishing house was taken over by Pons in spring 2019 , no youth word of the year was chosen for 2019 because the lexicon was not in a reasonable condition. After it was initially unclear whether the concept would be continued, there was again a vote for youth word of the year in 2020.

List of youth words

year placement Youth word of the year Explanation
2008 1st place Rotten meat party Party for people over 30 years of age, over 30s party
2nd place Screen tan Paleness of geeks
3rd place under hopft be To feel like having a beer
2009 1st place hard Being unemployed, "hanging out"
2nd place bam Variant of "cool"
3rd place Bankster Combination of banker and gangster
2010 1st place Level limbo Constant drop in level, parties getting out of hand and senseless conversations among young people
2nd place Ass fax Underpants label hanging from the back of the pants
3rd place Ego surfing Enter your own name in search engines on the Internet
2011 1st place Swag Enviable, casual-cool charisma
2nd place (epic) Fail Serious mistake, unsuccessful project, failure
3rd place Guttenbergen Copy
2012 1st place YOLO Abbreviation for "you only live once"; Request to seize an opportunity
2nd place FU! from the English " Fuck you ": 1. Shit, 2. Fuck you!
3rd place Yalla! from Arabic: hurry up! Let's go! Get out!
2013 1st place Babo Boss, leader, boss
2nd place fame Great, great, famous
3rd place dignified Great, cool, casual
2014 1st place What's up When someone is successful or lucky. “You have what it takes!”; cool, blatant; is also used ironically
2nd place Treat yourself Have lots of fun with it!
3rd place Hayvan Animal, cattle, lout
2015 1st place Smombie A suitcase word from the terms “smartphone” and “zombie”. This means people who are so distracted by constantly looking at their smartphone that they are barely aware of their surroundings.
2nd place notice derived from Angela Merkel's government style, do nothing, make no decision
3rd place to oxidize Chill , relax, hang out; practically just breathing (absorbing oxygen)
2016 1st place be fly Something or someone is particularly off
2nd place bae b efore a nyone / a nything e lse, term for best friend or similar.
3rd place isso “[It] is so”, agreement , affirmation
2017 1st place I bims "It's me" (in the so-called Vong language )
2nd place napflixen Napping during a movie; Suitcase word from the English "nap" and " Netflix "
3rd place underage be old enough to use Tinder ; Similarity to " minor "
2018 1st place Honorary man / woman of honor kind person, someone special; " Gentleman ", " Lady "
2nd place containing glucose sweet ; Glucose as the basis of sugar , i. S. v. "Containing sugar".
3rd place bugged faulty , from English bug = bug, vermin (in the sense of program error ); Usage: "You are really bad [= very / strongly] bugged", "The game is totally bugged"
2019 no - In 2019 the choice fell out.
2020 1st place lost clueless, lost, from English lost = lost, lost; Usage: "You are totally lost"
2nd place cringe Term for something embarrassing, a situation or action by a person for which one is ashamed of others . From English cringe = to shrink back, to shudder.
3rd place wild / wyld Term for a situation or action that is "too wild" and triggers strong emotions, also means crazy or something special. From English wild = wild, unbridled, exuberant.


Criticism and discussion

General

The “Youth Word of the Year” campaign is criticized for being established by the organizer Langenscheidt for commercial advertising purposes and for being used annually. In addition, it is doubted that young people actually speak according to the “youth words” - especially since not only young people, but internet users of all age groups can participate in the vote on the annual youth word.

The Society for German Language (GfdS) describes the election as a nice idea. The head of the GfdS language advice service, Lutz Kuntzsch, also said: “The whole thing is a language game. I would not deduce from this that the youth actually speak like that. "

Wolfgang Gaiser from the German Youth Institute criticizes: “It probably has more to do with publishing house marketing than with social research about what young people talk about, what young people think. A clever marketing gimmick is to use such gimmicks to draw attention to publishing products and to retain readership. [...] If fun formulations are emphasized, as if they were the language and level of thought of today's youth, this distorts the picture of today's youth. "

2009

The word "hartzen" has been criticized as it implies that the unemployed are lazy and voluntarily live at the expense of the state.

2015

The term " Alpha-Kevin ", a synonym for "the stupidest of all", was taken out of the vote, because name bearers and thus real people should not be discriminated against. The actual existence of the youth word “smombie” in youth language was doubted by journalists, since this word did not appear on the Internet before the nomination for the election of the youth word of the year. It was speculated that it could be an invention of the Langenscheidt publishing house.

2020

After Langenscheidt-Verlag decided in 2019 not to choose a youth word of the year, the campaign is back in 2020. This time the criticism is to be reacted to by giving the young community as much a say as possible. Terms can be freely submitted for voting on the Langenscheidt Verlag website. The Reddit community / r / ich_iel took advantage of this opportunity and submitted the word “ son of a bitch ”, among other things . Based on the popular meme “Speak German, you son of a bitch”, the users committed to making “son of a bitch” the 2020 word for young people.

Langenscheidt was ultimately forced to respond to the massive submissions on Instagram . In a statement, the publisher stated that “son of a bitch” was disqualified as the youth word of the year because it “did not want to support terms in this category”. However, the word should be included in the lexicon of youth language, which is to appear in October.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See www.jugendwort.de: Give us your word .
  2. ↑ www.welt.de: Don't “remember” - “Smombie” is the youth word of the year .
  3. ↑ a b Langenscheidt: Off for election to the youth word , Nürnberger Nachrichten , October 18, 2019.
  4. ↑ Claudia Mäder: Youth Word of the Year: There is no choice in 2019, unfortunately! In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . ( nzz.ch [accessed December 11, 2019]).
  5. ^ Youth word of the year 2020. In: Langenscheidt. Retrieved July 13, 2020 .
  6. ↑ "Niveaulimbo" is the youth word of the year. In: Spiegel Online on November 29, 2010.
  7. ↑ The youth word of the year has been chosen! jugendwort.de , accessed on December 5, 2011 .
  8. ↑ Das Jugendwort des Jahres 2012. jugendwort.de , accessed on November 26, 2012 .
  9. ↑ The youth word of the year has been chosen! jugendwort.de , accessed on December 10, 2012 .
  10. ↑ Yalla !: Everything about meaning, translation and more. giga.de , accessed on July 16, 2018 .
  11. ^ The youth word of the year 2013. jugendwort.de , accessed on November 25, 2013 .
  12. ^ The youth word of the year 2014. jugendwort.de , accessed on November 25, 2014 .
  13. ^ The youth word of the year 2015. jugendwort.de , accessed on November 13, 2015 .
  14. ↑ a b Language: Youth word of the year 2016 is "being fly". In: Spiegel Online . November 18, 2016, accessed November 18, 2016 .
  15. ↑ I bims is “Youth Word of the Year 2017”. November 17, 2017. Retrieved November 17, 2017 .
  16. ↑ "I bims" is "Youth Word of the Year 2017". November 17, 2017. Retrieved November 17, 2017 .
  17. ↑ German language: "I bims" is youth word of the year. In: Spiegel Online . November 17, 2017. Retrieved November 17, 2017 .
  18. ↑ Language: From this man comes 1 new language. In: welt.de . June 13, 2017. Retrieved November 17, 2017 .
  19. ↑ Online voting: “Geht fit” or “napflixen” - the 2017 youth word is chosen. In: shz.de . November 17, 2017. Retrieved November 17, 2017 .
  20. ↑ What will the youth word 2017 be? In: freundin.de . November 17, 2017. Retrieved November 17, 2017 .
  21. ^ Youth Word of the Year 2018. In: Langenscheidt Online. 2018, accessed on November 27, 2018 : "Gentleman, Lady"
  22. ↑ Traditional election is canceled - No “Youth Word of the Year” 2019. In: ZDF heute . October 17, 2019, accessed October 20, 2019 .
  23. ↑ Youth Word of the Year 2020 | Langenscheidt. Retrieved September 3, 2020 .
  24. ^ W. Gaiser in conversation with Elena cell. In: Sunday. December 1, 2013, p. 9.
  25. ↑ www.stern.de: From “Babo” to “Runs with you” - do you know the youthful words of the past few years?
  26. ↑ Why Alpha Kevin is suddenly no longer an option. In: welt.de . July 25, 2015, accessed July 25, 2015 .
  27. ↑ This term was previously only known to the jury: "Smombie" instead of "Merkeln" is youth word of the year , Meedia , November 13, 2015.
  28. ↑ "Smombie" does not exist - it is an invention , Der Tagesspiegel , November 13, 2015.
  29. ↑ Langenscheidt bans “son of a bitch” as the youth word of the year. In: ze.tt. Accessed September 3, 2020 (German).
  30. ↑ Meme battle on the net: “Son of a bitch” must not become a youth word. July 9, 2020, accessed September 3, 2020 .