Beseda leta – Slovene Word of the Year

Abstract Summary

Abstract :

In Slovenia, the Word of the year poll is carried out since 2016 by the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts and media. In December of each calendar year, a shortlist of ten words is released, chosen by a team of lexicographers, historians and scientists from other fields of research and journalists from a pool of words, submitted by the general public at the organizers’ appeal in November of each year. Words, submitted by the speakers of Slovene language, fall into categories that range from previously known words, used increasingly or excessively in that year, and new words, often borrowed from English (jutuber, ikeizacija, influencer, podkast), to words that were in use more often in that year because of a political or social change (prva dama ‘first lady’, anticepilci ‘antivaxers’), eternal words like ljubezen ‘love’, to political commentary, in one case with mass submissions of a single word, orchestrated by a political party (cenzura ‘censorship’).







The shortlisted words are those who have come to prominence in that year, reflect changes in language and/or society, or are neologisms, believed to have a high potential to become a part of everyday vocabulary. The public vote is held in January. The word of the year 2016 was begunec ‘refugee’, in 2017 evropski prvaki ‘European champions’ and in 2019 Ä