'Anderhalvemetersamenleving' voted Dutch word of the year

The word "anderhalvemetersamenleving" was chosen the 2020 Word of the Year, getting 29.8 percent of the 12 thousand votes, publisher Van Dale announced on Tuesday. Second place went to "fabeltjesfuik" with 11 percent of the votes, closely followed by "viruswappie" with 10.6 percent.

"Anderhalvemetersamenleving" translates to "1.5 meter society". It refers to social distancing in the coronavirus pandemic. "A society that is structured in such a way that citizens in public spaces and in publicly accessible locations can keep at least a meter and a half distance from others, in particular to prevent virus epidemics," Van Dale explained the word.

"Fabeltjesfuik" literally translate to "myth trap". It refers to people on social media who read a lot about conspiracy theories and get trapped in the bubble, getting more and more posts about these types of theories.

And "viruswappie" is an insulting term used for someone who denies the seriousness of the coronavirus or the pandemic.

Most of the 20 words on the shortlist for this year's word of the year had to do with the coronavirus. Others included "coronamoe", over the coronavirus or pandemic fatigue, "kuchscherm", a cough screen, "lockdownfeestje", a lockdown party, and "covidioot", or Covid idiot.

Words unrelated to the pandemic included "racismeknielen", referring to a phenomenon that started in American football of people kneeling to protest racism, and "klimaatwanhoper", referring to someone knowing that global warming is man made but feeling the climate can not be saved.

Last year's word of the year was "boomer". In 2018 it was "blokeerfries", in 2017 "appongeluk" in 2016 "treitervlogger", in 2015 "sjoemelsoftware", and 2014 "dagobertductaks".

Welk woord heeft de verkiezing Woord van het Jaar 2020 gewonnen? Ruud Hendrickx (de Vlaamse hoofdredacteur van de Dikke Van Dale) vertelt het je in deze video. #WVHJ pic.twitter.com/qacxVXQM7L

— Van Dale Uitgevers (@VanDaleUitgever) December 15, 2020