Every year the Van Dale dictionary group selects a couple of words. Everyone is invited to vote for the word of the woord van het jaar. These words are usually based on political or social events from the year. The past winners have been:

2013- selfie
After the craze of selfies, including Obama’s selfie with British Prime Minister David Cameron and Denmark’s Prime Minister Helle Thorning Schmidt, selfie couldn’t miss joining the Dutch vocabulary!

2012- project x-feest
In Groningen, a party was crashed thanks to social media promotion. Much like the movie “Project X”, they tore up the town and made the news.

2011- tuigdorp
This word owes its fame to the PVV party, the conservative populist party of the Netherlands. According to the PVV, repeating offenders should be placed in a tuigdorp which can be loosely translated to a scum village.

2010- gedoogregering
An accepted or accepting government.

2009- Ontvrienden
I can only assume this word won because of social media. Ontvrienden means to unfriend.

This year, the nominees are:

clownspiet­- a play between clown and Zwarte Piet

crimiclown– a clown who terrifies people

dagobertducktaks– extra tax for the very wealthy; this word makes reference to Dagobert, also known as Scrooge McDuck

fotobom– accidently appearing in someone’s photo

jihadgezin– a family in which one or more members have gone to fight with radical Muslims in Syria

kalifaatganger– a radical Muslim who has gone to the self-declared Muslim caliphate

moestuinsocialisme– vegetable garden socialism; this word was coined after minister Jetta Klijnsma said gardening is good for old people on low incomes

stemfie- taking a selfie while voting or stemmen; this was very popular during elections and even stirred a debate questioning if stemfies were legal

straatintimidatie– intimidation on the street

wegkijkstaat- look away state; a neo-liberal society in which everyone ignores those less fortunate than themselves

You can check out the Van Dale website and cast your stem!