It became the word of the year in 2016, and was huge news in the Netherlands for a while. A treitervlogger. But what is that? And why was it in the news like that, to even become the word of the year? Let’s find out.

Treitervlogger

Treitervlogger Ilgun, an excerpt from one of his YouTube videos.

The definition in the Dutch Van Dale of a treitervlogger is:

iemand die videoblogs maakt van het treitergedrag van zijn vrienden en die zelf, door dit gedrag te filmen en de film te publiceren, ook overlast veroorzaakt. 

Somebody that makes video blogs about the bullying behavior of his friends and who himself, by filming this behavior and publishing the film, is also causing nuisance.

So, it is a person that films how others bully somebody and publishes this, vlogs about it.

How did it get famous?

Back in September, Ismael Ilgun from Zaandam was arrested for opruiing (instigation) of two guys that threatened others with a boksbeugel (brass knuckles) and a stroomstootwapen (electroshock weapon). He filmed that and the term treitervlogger was born. So what was that like, what happened? Arjen Lubach explained it pretty nicely in his show Zondag met Lubach:

So they explained their behavior by saying that they want a buurthuis (neighborhood center). Apparently, they already had this, and it was vernield (destroyed).

Woord van het jaar 2016

With almost a third of the votes, treitervlogger easily got first place as woord van het jaar (word of the year).

Hoofdredacteur (chief editor) Ton den Boon said about the word earlier: “Toen ik het in de zomer signaleerde, dacht ik dat het een gelegenheidswoord was. Maar ik kom het nu nog bijna iedere dag tegen. Dat is het leuke van nieuwe woorden, dat ze duidelijk maken dat de taal dynamisch is, dat de taal leeft. En dat ze maatschappelijke ontwikkelingen weerspiegelen.” (When I perceived it in the summer, I thought that it was a word in passing. But even now, I still hear it every day. That is the fun part of new words, that they make clear that a language is dynamic, that the language lives. And that they reflect societal developments.)

What do you think about the word? Are there treitervloggers in your area as well? Let me know in the comments below!