First there was that eyebrow-raising and little known German word of the year – Wutbürger (enraged citizen). Now there is the Unwort des Jahres, or ‘un-word’ of the year – alternativlos, literally meaning “without alternative.”
According to an official jury that selected this word, it serves as a loud and clear debate killer to critically underscore the oft-repeated tone of politics and policymakers over the course of 2010 who used phrases such as: “We have no alterantive but to bail Greece out of its euro crisis to stabilize the euro zone.”
The runner-up this year was Integrationsverweigerer – an immigrant who refuses to integrate with the native population. According to the jury, this word was also used unfavorably in 2010 by certain German politicians.
Other contendors, among a field of some 1,120 suggested words, were Steuersünder (tax sinner) and Schwarzsparer (black saver), to denote citizens who evade taxes via offshore bank accounts. The terms Brückentechnologie (bridge technology), ascribed to nuclear energy, and Sparpaket (savings package), used to denote the federal government’s savings’ program, were also considered.
Last year’s un-word of the year was betriebsratverseucht, which can be loosely translated as “plagued by the corporate employee board.”
The German prefix “un” is incidentally a great way to totally change the meaning of a word in the language. For example Kraut means cabbage or herbs, but Unkraut means weeds.
