Klimaatklever, a new term to describe climate campaigners who glue themselves to works of art, has been voted the Dutch word of the year.
The result was announced after a quarter of 15,000 Dutch speakers in the Netherlands and Belgium voted for it as the word that best summed up 2022.
The Van Dale dictionary, the authority on the Dutch language, defined klimaatklever as “an activist who glues himself to an object with symbolic value to raise public awareness of climate change.”
Belgian voters in Flanders also picked the slang term, which pokes fun at the activists, as their word of the year. It was coined by combining the Dutch word for climate with klever, which can mean sticker or one who clings.
Various works of art in Europe were targeted in the past months by Just Stop Oil protestors by gluing themselves to the works of art.
Concentratiecrisis, which describes distraction caused by social media, was Belgium’s second choice. The second most popular word of 2022 in the Netherlands was zevenvinker, which means seven ticks.
Journalist Joris Luyendijk coined the term to define privilege. The ticks include being male, white, heterosexual, having a Dutch or rich parent and being university educated.
Energietoerisme, or energy tourism, was the third most popular choice. It refers to the phenomenon of travelling to warmer countries to avoid rushing energy prices at home.
The Van Dale dictionary has run the contest for the last 16 years.
Photo: A handout photo made available by the ‘Just Stop Oil’ climate activism group of two protesters who threw Heinz Tomato soup at Vincent Van Gogh’s 1888 painting ‘Sunflowers’ at the National Gallery in London, 14 October 2022. EPA-EFE/JUST STOP OIL HANDOUT
Read more via The Telegraph
