Germany’s Duden Dictionary adds 3,000 new words including OpenAI and Ghosting
9572 Mins Read
Germany’s Duden dictionary announced this week that it was introducing 3,000 new words into its latest edition, including TikTok and ChatGPT. Other tech terms like Hyperloop, OpenAI, and Ghosting were also added, as well as terms that have become popularized internationally like Triggerwarnung and Wokeness.
Most of the new terms, however, have to do with “cooking, crises, and war,” said Duden’s chief editor Katrin Kunkel-Razum.
Words like Sushireis (sushi rice), Tahin (tahini), Gojibeeren, Salsiccia (Italian for sausage) and Mocktail have entered the lexicon, showing a growing taste for more diverse ingredients in the kitchen. There are also words that show the nexus of cooking and technology like Gemüsekiste (vegetable box) and Kochbox (cooking box), highlighting the increasing popularity of home-delivery produce and meal kits.
New climate change related terms have also been added, such as Extremwetterereignis (extreme weather event) and Klimakleber (climate gluer), the latter of which refers to protestors who glue themselves to airport runways and roads to protest the use of fossil fuels.
Current events like Ukrainekrieg (war in Ukraine) and Russlandsanktion (Russia sanction) are also well represented amongst the thousands of new words.
Kunkel-Razum said it was interesting to see which COVID-19-related words would stick around after lockdowns were lifted and travel bans dropped.
“We discussed the coronavirus vocabulary intensely,” she said, adding that it was “clearer” now what would stick around than it had been in 2020.
Impfzertifikat (vaccination certificate), Coronaleunger (COVID-19 conspiracy theorist), Distanzunterricht (distancing learning), and Virusvariante (virus variant) will all be listed in the dictionary for the first time.
