Some new words made it to the dictionary this year.
Climate emergency among them….
Back well before 1984, Mr Orwell put the power of language directly into our heads. And we know they matter. Well, this year we see some words that I think will become more than everyday usage. I think they will become a core element of how the past sees us.
But not just English. There are some interesting words in other languages. Examples:
Flygskam – ‘flight-shame’ in Swedish, and its corollary tagskryt: ‘train-boasting’ both popularized by Greta Thunberg’s rise.
Speaking of whom, we have gretini from Italian critics meaning mindless followers of Greta, a play on the word cretini: ‘idiot’
The Danes have klimatosse – ‘climate fool’, meant to refer to people who care about nothing else. The future will see who the fool really is.
Or maybe we will see more laad-paalklever, Dutch for those who use the electric-car charging space for too long, treating it like a free space.
Doubtless there are more to come.
Photo credit: nytimes.
