language
«Unword of the year» 2021 will be announced
The “bad words” in 2020 were “Corona dictatorship” and “repatriation sponsorships”. Photo: Arne Dedert / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
The jury received around 1,300 suggestions for the next “bad word”. Almost 45 terms met the criteria. The frequency of the nomination does not play a role in the freestyle.
The “Unword of the Year” 2021 will be announced this Wednesday in Marburg.
According to the language-critical campaign that has chosen the word since 1991, this time the jury received around 1,300 entries with word suggestions. Among them were around 450 different terms, of which almost 45 met the criteria, reported jury spokeswoman Constanze Spieß. Many suggestions related to the corona pandemic, as the campaign announced a few weeks ago about the intermediate status of the submissions.
The jury wants to draw attention to inappropriate use of language by choosing an “unword” every year and thus raise awareness. Terms are criticized that violate the principles of human dignity or democracy, that discriminate against social groups or that are euphemistic, obscure or misleading. The number of suggestions received for a single word does not matter.
The “bad words” from previous years were presented in Darmstadt. With a change in the jury, the announcement has now moved to the University of Marburg. Most recently, there were two “bad words”: for 2020 these are “Corona dictatorship” and “repatriation sponsorships”.