And the winner is…
The natives have this end-of-the-year-tradition sort of. Ever since 1972 the GfdS, die Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache (The German Language Society) announces its “word of the year”. The words are selected with regard to what is seen to be their relevance in native society for that given year. And the winner for 2005 is…
Bundeskanzlerin (Chancellor, in the feminine form). Angela Merkel is, of course, the first woman Chancellor but it was not a given that the word Chancellor would also be “feminized”. Yet it was, that is, it is and now she’s number one on that list, too.
My personal favorite is the phrase of the year, however: “Wir sind Papst!” “We are the Pope!” It’s basically an allusion to soccer, you know, like as in “we are the champions” or something. But it’s kind of controversial sort of because a few folks got offended by it and hurt feelings and all that. But, hey, then again, a few folks always do. Get offended and get their feelings hurt, I mean. It’s their job or something.
So I gottcha word of the year right here, folks. But I’m keeping it to myself. For now.
"Wir sind Bundeskanzlerin" wäre auch nicht schlecht gewesen.
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