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Word of the year

Every year, countries throughout Europe participate in the tradition of selecting a "word of the year." Here are the words from the previous year!

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Word of the year

Every year, countries throughout Europe participate in the tradition of selecting a "word of the year." This practice involves choosing a single word or phrase that reflects the social, cultural, or political trends and events of the year. The word of the year serves as a symbolic representation of the collective consciousness and prevailing themes within a society. It captures the zeitgeist and becomes a reflection of the shared experiences, concerns, and aspirations of the people.

 

Words of the year 2023

Luxembourg 2023

KI / Kënschtlech Intelligenz

AI / Artificial Intelligence

That's what the experts in Luxembourg have decided to elect as word of the year, a phenomenon that has already left its mark on our everyday lives and that is set to revolutionise many areas in the future, whether we like it or not.

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Italy 2023

Femminicidio

Femicide

Unfortunately, in 2023 the word has become more relevant, to the point of taking the form of a sort of alarm bell that signals, on a linguistic level, the intensity of gender discrimination. The term, perfectly congruent with the mechanisms that regulate word formation in Italian, made its appearance in our language in 2001; since then, it has spread like wildfire as the crime that is its referent.

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Belgium 2023

Bombe climatique

Climate bomb

The term "climate bomb" (or "carbon bomb") refers to a mega fossil fuel extraction project, either operational or under construction. The choice of this word reveals the sensitivity of a significant proportion of Internet users to phenomena linked to climate issues.

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United Kingdom 2023

Rizz

--

2023 marked the era of personal – and professional – PR. And what does it take to command attention? A whole lot of charisma, or the shortened form, ‘rizz’. Pertaining to someone’s ability to attract another person through style, charm, or attractiveness, this term is from the middle part of the word ‘charisma’, which is an unusual word formation pattern. Other examples include ‘fridge’ (refrigerator) and ‘flu’ (influenza).

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United Kingdom 2023

AI

--

‘AI’,a term that describes ‘the modelling of human mental functions by computer programs’ has been named Collins Word of the Year 2023. Considered to be the next great technological revolution, AI has seen rapid development and has been much talked about in 2023.

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Spain 2023

Polarización

Polarisation

In recent years, this word has been widely used to refer to situations in which there are two very defined and distanced opinions or activities, sometimes with the implicit ideas of tension and confrontation. Applied to politics and ideology, to the world of sport, to debate on digital platforms and, in general, to any scenario in which disagreement is commonplace, the word polarisation has spread throughout 2023.

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Switzerland 2023

Décombres

Rubble

A world falling apart on several levels - the term refers as much to the earthquakes that have left millions of people in Syria and Turkey, as well as the wreckage of war suffered by civilian victims around the world. It also highlights the reshaping of a global geopolitical order in competition with the global south. But to decompose is etymologically, the action of clearing away clutter: the term invites us to think about the world and prepare for the future.

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Switzerland 2023

Monsterbank

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The troubled Credit Suisse has shaken Switzerland's self-image as a safe haven for client money. After emergency meetings with the Federal Department of Finance, the Swiss National Bank and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, CS and UBS concluded a merger agreement. The result was a monstrously large bank by Swiss standards.

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Portugal 2023

Professor

Teacher

Teachers continue to demand that their profession be valued in hundreds of protests across the country.

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Austria 2023

Kanzlermenü

Chancellor's menu

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said at a meeting with party colleagues that the cheapest hot meal in Austria was a hamburger at MacDonald's and that everyone could afford it. He meant this as a recommendation for poor families to give their children a hamburger from McDonald’s as a standard meal because it was so cheap, which caused a great stir and incomprehension in the media.

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Germany 2023

Krisenmodus

Crisis mode

We are surrounded by crises. Crises that have not yet been overcome, such as climate change, the Russia-Ukraine war or the energy crisis, are being overtaken by new crises. The Middle East war, inflation and the debt crisis have now been added to the mix and the education crisis has also come to a head.

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