US linguists have picked the gender-neutral pronoun "they" as their word of the decade. The term beat a list of contenders that included "meme," "#BlackLivesMatter" and "'MeToo" to win the crown.
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The American Dialect Society has named "they" as the word of the decade, recognizing the plural pronoun's growing use as a singular form to refer to people with a non-binary gender identity.
The winner was decided in a vote by the body's 350 members at an annual gathering on Friday.
"People want to choose something that stands the test of time and sums up the decade as a whole," said linguist and lexicographer Ben Zimmer.
The word of the year was "(my) pronouns" — a nod to the increasingly popular practice of specifying the perferred personal pronouns one would like to be called by, for example she/her.
The society said in a statement that the top picks showed "how the personal expression of gender identity has become an increasing part of our shared discourse."
Other words on the list for word of the decade included "meme," which came in second place, followed by "climate," "#BlackLivesMatter," "woke" and "MeToo."
The American Dialect Society was founded in 1889 and started selecting its word of the year in 1991. Since then, the only two previous decade winners have been "web" for the 1990s, and "Google" as a verb for the 2000s.
From 'Krisenmodus' to 'Lichtgrenze': Germany's 10 past words of the year
"Krisenmodus," or crisis mode, is the word of the year 2023. A look at the political buzzwords selected by the Association for the German Language over the last decade.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Büttner
2023: 'Krisenmodus'
Wars, inflation, the climate emergency: There are many issues to worry about. "The crisis mode is a permanent state," said one German politician in a 2023 debate on how the COVID pandemic was managed. "Krisenmodus," or "crisis mode" was picked by the Association for the German Language as the political buzzword of the year.
Image: Ohad Zwigenberg/AP Photo/picture alliance
2022: 'Zeitenwende'
"Zeitenwende," literally "times-turn," refers to a historic turning point: The term was used by Chancellor Olaf Scholz in a parliamentary address held in reaction to Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. With its WWII history, Germany's postwar defense policy had been rather cautious, but in this geopolitical context, the country would need to significantly increase its military budget.
Image: Christophe Gateau/dpa/picture alliance
2021: 'Wellenbrecher'
A plausible choice in times of an ongoing pandemic, "Wellenbrecher" (literally wave breaker) is a term that comes from coastal protection — it means breakwater. It also stands for all the measures that were taken to break the fourth COVID-19 wave that year, said the German Language Association, which has been selecting Germany's word of the year since 1977.
Image: Fotolia/Joshua Rainey
2020: 'Corona-Pandemie'
The COVID-19 pandemic was, of course, the leading topic of the year 2020, and that's why the German word of the year was none other than "Corona-Pandemie" (corona pandemic). The runner-up word selected by the jury was also related to the pandemic: "Lockdown."
Image: Sebastian Gollnow/dpa/picture alliance
2019: 'Respektrente'
Planned changes in German pension laws were set to put many workers at a disadvantage by retirement (Rente), so the bill was disparagingly dubbed "Respektrente." The term won over the expressions "Rollerchaos," referring to the chaos created by the sudden invasion of electric scooters in German cities, and "Fridays for Future," the English name for a worldwide school strike for climate movement.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
2018: 'Heisszeit'
The term "Heisszeit," or warm age — as opposed to an "ice age," which sounds quite similar in German, "Eiszeit" — was chosen as the Word of the Year in 2018, reflecting not only Germany's extreme summer that year, but climate change as as whole.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/B. Roessler
2017: 'Jamaika-Aus'
"Jamaica coalition" refers to the symbolic colors of three parties in German politics: black for the conservative CDU/CSU, yellow for the business-friendly FDP and green for the Green Party. In 2017, coalition talks went on for weeks, but then came to an abrupt halt. This was "Jamaika-Aus," or Jamaica Out.
Image: picture alliance / Frank Rumpenhorst/dpa
2016: 'postfaktisch'
During the United States presidential election campaign, and after Donald Trump's victory in the fall of 2016, the word "postfaktisch" or post-factual came into common usage to denote the spread of fake news. Even then-Chancellor Angela Merkel used it. The term comes into play when public opinion is formed by emotion and resentment rather than objective facts.
Image: DW
2015: 'Flüchtlinge'
Refugees — undoubtedly, no other issue had a bigger impact in Germany in 2015, when the Syrian civil war brought nearly a million refugees into the country. Runner-up was "Je suis Charlie," for expressing solidarity with the victims of the terrorist attack against the French satirical journal Charlie Hebdo. No. 3 was "Grexit," which referred to the possible expulsion of Greece from the Eurozone.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Hitij
2014: 'Lichtgrenze'
The winning word in 2014 was "Lichtgrenze," or border of light, which referred to a light installation on the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. This was followed by "schwarze Null," or black zero, describing government efforts to avoid new debts. Another favorite was "Götzseidank," a mash-up of "Gott sei Dank" (thank God) and the legendary goal of soccer star Mario Götze in Brazil.
