[Ads-l] Swedish neologisms of the year

[Laurence Horn]

On Jan 20, 2015, at 5:21 PM, Mark Mandel wrote:

> A Swedish friend sent me a link. *Warning: The top item on the page is a
> NSFW <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__en.wikipedia.org_wiki_Not-5Fsafe-5Ffor-5Fwork&d=AwIFaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=wFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=BvPEN_VDB0YU3PmgFdgkRpY71KXsLJzwi1Cj3m1aOjU&s=0BgbGg02dlCrbXJD0WrZR_YememwrcXMbLcubJW9PWY&e= > photo.*
> 
> *Here Are The Incredible Words Sweden Invented In 2014
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.vocativ.com_culture_fun_swedish-2Dwords_&d=AwIFaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=wFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=BvPEN_VDB0YU3PmgFdgkRpY71KXsLJzwi1Cj3m1aOjU&s=TGmvtxIKvzfHMNMGQFOvSOQ7Hi4cqZ_W_fby49HXfoU&e= >*
> 
> The Swedish Language Council has blessed the Swedish language this year
> with a list of 40 new words—all of them absolutely phenomenal, all of them
> imminently adoptable for even non-Swedish speakers.
> 
> There are your usual suspects: *usie* (the plural of “selfie”), *normcore*

"Normcore" finished a distant third in the WOTY category of "least likely to succeed" in the Portland vote, partly because it's already succeeded more than its rivals, "pairage" (the term suggested in Utah for same-sex marriage) and the runaway winner, "platisher" (a blend of "platform" and "frobisher" or something.  Let me check…ah yes, "platform" + "publisher".  I do like "ussie", though, as a plural of "selfie", although I think it desperately needs that second <s> (even you spell "bus(s)es" without it).   

(And I see Swedish has its own word for "selfie stick"/"narcissistic(k)".)

LH


> (that current fashion trend of purposefully emulating 1990s mall dads) and
> other cultural touchstones you might find in year-end additions from
> Merriam-Webster and the like. And then there are some truly
> unique creations that could only have come from a country as steadfastly
> unique as Sweden.
> 
> It goes on to list 15 of them, mostly not looking as much like English
> loans as these two do. I wrote back to him
> 
> Are these neologisms for real? I can't tell if this is real or satire.
> ¿?¿?¿?¿?¿?
> 
> He replied:
> 
> Oh, they’re for real, it’s sort of a tradition for the Language Council[…]

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