After two years where our lives and, therefore, our vocabulary, were impregnated with everything that had to do with the pandemic, it seems that for now we have a breather from the coronavirus. But current affairs rule and in 2022 it was marked by the energy crisis… And this was reflected in our way of speaking.
There are expressions that are already part of our daily life, whether or not they appear formally in the dictionary. Therefore, it is not surprising that “bump” and its antonym “unstop” have been chosen as “palabros” of the year by the magazine puntoycoma.
This publication, which is the newsletter for Spanish translators from the institutions of the European Union, has held the contest since 2012 “Word of the Year”whose requirements is that it be a badly said or bizarre word and that, at the same time, it has a repetitive use in the media, politics or the administration.
And you will say that “bumping” It’s in the dictionary. true but not with the meaning it acquired this year, that of “setting and removing caps” on the price of gas or oil, to energy consumption or the electricity bill.
Because it is “a word of undeniable political and social relevance due to the eternal debates about energy prices and the consequent presence of these issues in the media”, the editorial staff of the magazine chose it.
bump, bump, bump
It was so widely used that the Fundéu (Urgent Spanish Foundation) launched a recommendation in October saying that the verbs topar/destopar, as well as the destope noun “They are valid in the economic field to refer respectively to the action of setting a limit and to the action and the effect of removing the limit or ceiling that had been applied.”
The Foundation says that the word destopar can be explained as a creation from destope, which in turn would derive from top (used in expressions such as salary cap or budget cap) or it is also possible that it was formed from topar.
In the magazine puntoycoma they emphasize that the noun “tope” is a possible semantic calque of the English “cap” and that it has been proposed by numerous readers. They state that, although it is something accepted by the Fundéu, its use as a transitive verb in the aforementioned context “is still grating for many speakers”.
The other candidates of the year
Puntoycoma magazine readers submitted many proposals for word of the year related to the energy crisis and the consequent increase in the cost of living.
Some are not so newcoworking. But the need to save has become so urgent that the words, both those we use in our day to day as well as those sent by readers, made themselves felt.
Workspaces are no longer just shared, now it is done co living more recently, co-housing or collaborative housing, a booming concept that speaks of residential complexes that combine, on the one hand, independent homes and, on the other hand, spaces and services such as the kitchen, dining room or green areas, an option that allows better use of energetic resources.
In that same line of savings, the word appeared among the list prosumersthat is, the people who not only consume renewable energy, but also produce it.
As stated in the magazine, the linguistic and social reactions linked to the energy crisis “derive, to a large extent, from the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which unfortunately continues to dominate the front pages of our newspapers and affect the lives of thousands and thousands of families.
And in this line, the readers sent as candidates the words or expressions Collective West, special military operations, kamikaze drones or humanitarian corridors.
Another important section of the list was occupied by the candidates that have to do with social relations.
cancel culture was one of the candidate expressions, which comes from the English “cancel culture” and consists of withdrawing support from someone for having done something offensive or questionable.
And, given that in much of the world the pandemic and, therefore, the social distancing measures have been overcome, it seems that we are reviving flirting with others, in person and on social networks, which led to the appearance of new words to name some phenomena, most of them, Anglicisms.
One of these is ghosting, which refers to breaking a relationship from one moment to another, without communicating it. It does not have to be a serious relationship, it is also worth a Tinder chat.
In this same line is caspering, the technique of someone who is giving you long and does not finish staying with you; the person who makes you cushioningthat is, they may have a partner but, in addition, they have several cushions: people with whom they flirt from time to time so that they serve as a backup if the main relationship breaks down.
orbiting, as a technique where someone does not speak to you, but “hangs around” you, goes around you on social networks and likes all your things, also appeared as a candidate word. And, in this line too, the breadcrumbingwhich comes from breadcrum, breadcrumbs, and consists of leaving a trail of (emotional) crumbs for someone to follow you… But without specifying anything.
Lthe winners of previous editions
Last year the winner was a word related to the pandemic: vaccinodromethe large space for the mass administration of vaccines.
In 2020 the “strange word” was also a reflection of the pandemic and its consequences; zoombirthdays, a “funny combination between the word «birthday» and the name of one of the most used virtual communication platforms to keep in touch with our loved ones”.
The winner of the first edition of this contest, in 2012, was austerityused “to designate death by austerity; excessive, it is understood”.
In 2018 he won old-fashioned“an older person who wants to look like a millennial and in 2017 the landslide winner was fake newsfake news, which obtained the podium not only in this contest, but also for the Oxford dictionary, which reviewed it as the word of the year.
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