Un-word of the year

Un-word of the year is an annual selection of one new or recently popularized term that allegedly violates human rights or infringes upon democratic principles, made by a panel of German linguists. The term may be one that discriminates against societal groups or may be euphemistic, disguising or misleading. The term is chosen from suggestions sent in by the public. The choice of the word does not depend on how many times it was suggested, but reflects the judgement of the panel. The core of the panel consists of four linguists and one journalist. The un-word of the previous year is announced every January.
The linguistic action was started in 1994 by the linguist. The yearly publication of the "un-words of the year" is today widely reported in German media and very popular among Germans. In 2007, the president of the German PEN association, Johano Strasser, criticized the selections as being "themselves a symptom of the language neglect that it pretends to be able to heal" and having the quality of Deutschland sucht den Superstar.

History

Between 1991 and 1993, the un-word was announced by the Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache, alongside the Word of the Year. In 1994, following a row with the then German government led by Helmut Kohl, the jury led by linguist Horst Dieter Schlosser decided to become independent of any state-funded institution.

List of un-words of the year since 1991

1990s

In 1999, the jury chose Menschenmaterial as un-word of the 20th century.

Century	Un-word of the century	English translation	Explanation
20th		human material	With this word, a human is considered a mere object. This became particularly apparent in the First and Second World War as many people were used and expended for waging war.

Year	Un-word of the year	English translation	Explanation
1991	ausländerfrei	free of foreigners	Xenophobic, far-right slogan referring to an community without any non-German inhabitants, which came to broad public attention during the Hoyerswerda riots.
1992	ethnische Säuberung	ethnic cleansing	Euphemism popularized during the Yugoslav Wars, referring to the elimination of unwanted ethnic or religious groups by deportation, forcible displacement, and mass murder.
1993	Überfremdung	lit. 'over-foreignization'	Xenophobic slogan referring to the fear of the negative impact of immigrants on German culture. Considered to make "undifferentiated xenophobia" sound more argumentative and clinical.
1994	Peanuts	From the English word peanuts	Chosen to criticize the different definitions of an insignificant amount of money by bankers and average people. Hilmar Kopper, then Chairman of the Board of Deutsche Bank, had used the term to refer to a sum of DM 50 million.
1995	Diätenanpassung	adjustment of the remuneration	Euphemism used by members of the Bundestag to refer to the raising of their monetary rewards. The choice of this un-word criticizes the fact that wages for German MPs are set by the MPs themselves, rather than by an independent body.
1996	Rentnerschwemme	lit. 'flood of pensioners/retired persons'	Term used in the political discussion about the social difficulties arising from population ageing. The choice criticizes the "wrong and inhumane impression"; the rising number of people in need of a reasonable old-age provision would be "similar to a natural disaster".
1997	Wohlstandsmüll	lit. 'prosperity waste'	Deprecatory term coined by Helmut Maucher during an interview, referring to people who are either presumed unable or reluctant to find employment, who in his opinion exist because of the highly developed welfare and social support systems in Germany.
1998	sozialverträgliches Frühableben	lit. 'socially acceptable early passing'	Coined by Karsten Vilmar, then head of the German Medical Association, implying that people who die early into their retirement were considered advantageous for the welfare system.
1999	Kollateralschaden	collateral damage	Military term referring to the incidental destruction of civilian property and non-combatant casualties, which came to broad attention during the Kosovo War.