Dutch word for “polarization” named Word of the Year after outcry over two nominees
The Dutch translation of the word, polarization, was named the 2024 Word of the Year by Dutch dictionary firm Van Dale. The word was selected after the annual public voting period was cancelled due to angry reactions from people on both ends of the political spectrum regarding two nominated words.
The company said in a statement on its website on Friday that the poll was being manipulated by various activist groups who campaigned against voting for certain words. One of the two words that largely drew angry reactions were pieperaanval, a portmanteau translating to “pager attack,” which is a reference to Israel’s attack on Hezbollah.
The second is transitiespijt, or “transition regret,” a reference to the perception that transgender people have second thoughts after transitioning. This angered several major organizations representing the LGBTQI+ community, who said it stigmatizes all transgender people based on a false notion that a high number of them regret moving forward with a surgery.
“The nominated words offer a look back at the language developments in 2024,” Van Dale said in a statement. “In recent days, the election has been hijacked by various action groups that call for voting or not voting for certain words. The messages surrounding these words have degenerated into a very unpleasant social discussion and with that the election has missed its mark,” the Amsterdam-based company continued.
“This year, there is even more intense reaction than in other years.” The company noted that the Van Dale Word of the Year campaign is meant to reflect how language changes. “Following the intense reactions to this year’s election, which illustrate the spirit of the times, the Van Dale Word of the Year 2024 in the Netherlands is: polarisatie.”
The other nominated words included AI-washing, beknibbelflatie, burn-outbureaucratie, comfortwater, gen Z-stagiair, koeltekloof, profnar, and sjoemelscooter. The dictionary company received some criticism in various online forums for choosing several words which are infrequently used, and mainly leaning on compound words instead of new terms as the candidates for the contest.
Last year, the Dutch term graaiflatie was selected as Word of the Year. It roughly translates to “grabflation” or “greedflation,” born out of companies charging excessive price increases to boost profits under the guise of high inflation rates.
