Parole dell’anno 2017 – Seconda parte
feminism – sostantivo (Merriam Webster)
complicit – aggettivo (Dictionary.com)
populism – sostantivo (Cambridge University Press)
More recently, lookups of feminism have been increasing in conjunction with the many accounts of sexual assault and harassment in the news.
The second spike came in April, after Ivanka Trump told CBS, ‘I don’t know what it means to be complicit.’
On that same day, Pope Francis warned against a rising tide of populism in a widely reported interview with El Pais newspaper.
Il criterio seguito dall’americano Merriam Webster è di nominare la parola più cliccata sulla versione online del dizionario e nel 2017 il primato è andato a feminism, probabilmente in seguito a manifestazioni quali la ‘Women’s March on Washington’, la marcia delle donne contro il razzismo, la xenofobia e la misoginia che ha avuto luogo a gennaio dello scorso anno.
Anche la parola complicit, scelta da Dictionary.com e seconda classificata per il Merriam Webster ha fatto registrare un’impennata nei clic, anzi tre: la prima a marzo, quando il Saturday Night Live, uno degli show satirici americani più longevi e acclamati ha mandato in onda un finto spot pubblicitario per il profumo Complicit, con Scarlett Johansson nei panni di Ivanka Trump; la seconda ad aprile, quando la figlia del presidente USA ha confessato alla CBS di non sapere cosa volesse dire ‘to be complicit’ dandone poi una definizione sballata; e la terza a ottobre quando il senatore Repubblicano Jeff Flake ha rassegnato le dimissioni affermando di non voler essere ‘complicit with the current political climate’, dimostrando altrettanta ignoranza.
Il Cambridge Dictionary ha promosso populism basandosi sul medesimo criterio, cioè picchi di consultazioni online a seguito di determinati avvenimenti.
Se pensate che nessuna di queste ‘parole dell’anno’ sia particolarmente nuova, avete ragione; se vi sembra che le scelte siano state massicciamente influenzate dalla politica americana… be’, avete ragione. Chissà che l’anno prossimo si opti per termini più interessanti dal punto di vista linguistico, ma con i tempi che corrono non sono pronta a scommetterci.
Traduzione di Loredana Riu
feminism – noun (Merriam Webster)
complicit – adjective (Dictionary.com)
populism – noun (Cambridge University Press)
More recently, lookups of feminism have been increasing in conjunction with the many accounts of sexual assault and harassment in the news.
The second spike came in April, after Ivanka Trump told CBS, ‘I don’t know what it means to be complicit.’
On that same day, Pope Francis warned against a rising tide of populism in a widely reported interview with El Pais newspaper.
Merriam Webster’s selection of Word of the Year is based on the number of lookups on its online dictionary, and the publisher reported that lookups of feminism both increased greatly over those in the previous year and spiked in response to events in the news such as the Women’s March on Washington.
Dictionary.com, which selected complicit (Merriam Webster’s runner up), also reported greatly increased lookups with 3 notable spikes: the first in March, when the American satirical show Saturday Night Live broadcast a spoof commercial for a fragrance called Complicit, with Scarlett Johansson impersonating Ivanka Trump; the second in April, when the First Daughter told CBS news that she ‘didn’t know what it meant to be complicit‘ and offered her own, completely unsubstantiated definition; and the third in October when Republican Senator Jeff Flake announced his retirement, saying that he would not be complicit with the current political climate.
Cambridge Dictionary’s choice of populism was based on similar reasons, spikes in lookups in response to particular events.
If you think that none of these WOTY choices is particularly new you would be correct. If you think the choices have been heavily influenced by politics, especially in the US, you’d also be right. Perhaps next year we can hope for terms that are more linguistically interesting; but I wouldn’t hold your breath.
