{"id":13773,"date":"2022-02-03T12:20:13","date_gmt":"2022-02-03T12:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=13773"},"modified":"2022-02-05T15:35:41","modified_gmt":"2022-02-05T15:35:41","slug":"how-germans-created-this-english-word-anglicism-of-the-year-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/how-germans-created-this-english-word-anglicism-of-the-year-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Anglicism of the Year 2021: Germans Made This English Word!"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’ve already talked about the German Wort des Jahres <\/em>(word of the year) of 2021<\/a> and the German\u00a0Unwort des Jahres\u00a0<\/em>(“non”-word of the year) 2021<\/a>, as well as the Jugendwort des Jahres <\/em>(youth word of the year)<\/a>. But there’s one more that I would like to discuss – the\u00a0Anglizismus des Jahres <\/em>(Anglicism of the year)! Anglizismen\u00a0<\/em>are English words that are adopted into the German language.\u00a0Sprachwissenschaftler\u00a0<\/em>(linguists) have held this election since 2010, and have chosen words such as\u00a0Shitstorm\u00a0<\/em>(2011)<\/a> and\u00a0Gendersternchen\u00a0<\/em>(2018).<\/a> So what is it this year?<\/p>\n

Anglicism of the year 2021: Boostern<\/em><\/strong><\/h1>\n
\"Covid<\/a>

Photo by Parang Mehta<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

The winner in 2021 is…\u00a0boostern<\/em>!<\/strong> The English word “booster” gained significance in the past few months to indicate a third (or further) dose of the Corona-Impfung <\/em>(COVID vaccine)<\/strong> to “boost” the\u00a0protection against the coronavirus<\/a>. This word also quickly gained acceptance in the German-speaking world.<\/p>\n

With der Booster <\/em>(the booster), one could indicate the third dose. However, the verb is more common, as the third dose would more commonly be referred to as die dritte Impfung <\/em>(the third vaccination), die Boosterimpfung <\/em>(the booster vaccine) or die Auffrischimpfung <\/em>(the refresh vaccine).<\/p>\n

A German creation?<\/strong><\/h1>\n
\"German

Photo by Maheshkumar Painam<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Die Auffrischimpfung <\/i>might make you wonder – why didn’t auffrischen\u00a0<\/em>(to refresh) catch on?<\/p>\n

It could be because the term “Booster” already existed in medical texts before.<\/strong> The term “booster shot” already showed up in medical texts in the 1940s, while the shorter formulation “booster” saw adoption in the 60s. The corresponding verb is “to boost”.<\/p>\n

What’s interesting is that Germans didn’t adopt\u00a0that\u00a0<\/em>verb. They made a new one from “Booster” –\u00a0boostern<\/em>. For German, where many verbs end in\u00a0-en\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0-ern<\/em>, which also make for a straightforward conjugation,\u00a0to boost\u00a0<\/em>makes things a lot more difficult:<\/p>\n

Boost:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ich booste, du boostest, er\/sie\/es boostet, wir boosten, ihr boostet, sie boosten, geboostet.<\/em><\/p>\n

With this conjugation, a German would expect the full verb to be\u00a0boosten<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Other\u00a0Anglizismen\u00a0<\/em>go through something similar. Take, “to game”, for example, which also found its way into German:<\/p>\n

Ich game, du gamst, er\/sie\/es gamt, wir gamen, ihr gamt, sie gamen, gegamt.<\/em><\/p>\n

If you don’t know that you’re talking about gaming, a German would pronounce those verb forms quite differently! It’s quite confusing. To at least aid a bit with that confusion, guess what, the full verb of “to game” in German is: gamen<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

So it makes sense that Germans took that word,\u00a0Booster<\/em>, and just slapped an\u00a0-n<\/em> at the end of it<\/strong>. Similar to\u00a0das Alter -> altern\u00a0<\/em>(Age, to age);\u00a0Segel -> segeln\u00a0<\/em>(Sail, to sail). And b<\/em><\/strong>oostern<\/strong> <\/i>we conjugate as follows:<\/p>\n

Ich booster\/boostere\/boostre,<\/em><\/p>\n

Du boosterst,<\/em><\/p>\n

Er\/sie\/es boostert,<\/em><\/p>\n

Wir boostern<\/em><\/p>\n

Ihr boostert<\/em><\/p>\n

Sie boostern<\/em><\/p>\n

Geboostert<\/em><\/p>\n

And while you might hear it used in the active praesens at times, you will mostly hear it as\u00a0ich habe mich boostern lassen\u00a0<\/em>(I have let myself be boostered). Or\u00a0ich bin geboostert\u00a0<\/em>(I am boostered).<\/strong><\/p>\n

The jury was convinced by this word for\u00a0die Schnelligkeit\u00a0<\/em>(the speed) with which it entered\u00a0die L\u00fccke im Wortschatz\u00a0<\/em>(gap in the vocabulary)<\/strong> that was created with\u00a0die Auffrischimpfung<\/em>. And also how it perfectly aligned itself to the verb\u00a0Impfen<\/em>. We say wir<\/em> werden mit einem Impfstoff gegen eine Krankheit geimpft\u00a0<\/em>and now we also say\u00a0wir werden mit einem Impstoff gegen Corona geboostert.<\/em><\/p>\n

Interestingly, this German conjugation entered German before it entered the English language!<\/strong> “To booster” is now also a verb that you hear sometimes in English. “I am boostered” sounds right, whereas “I am boosted” doesn’t sound like it refers to the booster vaccine. So it’s a sensible adaptation.<\/p>\n

And why not\u00a0auffrischen<\/em>? Well,\u00a0boostern<\/em> has a more uplifting and dynamic tone<\/strong> and it signals that we are only geboostert <\/em>as long as the protection of the vaccine is still there<\/strong>. Finally,\u00a0boostern<\/em>, like to booster <\/em>in English, specifically refers to the COVID vaccine, which makes for quick and effective communication.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Runners-up: Long Covid, QR-Code<\/em><\/strong><\/h1>\n
\"Covid<\/a>

Photo by Lukas<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Runners-up for the\u00a0Anglizismus des Jahres\u00a0<\/em>were\u00a0Long Covid\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0QR-Code<\/em>.\u00a0Long Covid\u00a0<\/em>is an unlikely Anglicism, as German normally doesn’t take both an adjective and substantive literally into its vocabulary. Like QR-Code<\/em>, it became a common term during these pandemic years. QR-Code <\/em>simply didn’t have widespread use before the Check-In-Apps for Impfp\u00e4sse <\/em>(vaccination passes).<\/p>\n

What do you think about the Anglizismus des Jahres<\/em>? Do you have a suggestion for an\u00a0Anglizismus\u00a0<\/em>that deserves that title? How do you say\u00a0boostern\u00a0<\/em>in your language? Let me know in the comments below!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"Covid

We’ve already talked about the German Wort des Jahres (word of the year) of 2021 and the German\u00a0Unwort des Jahres\u00a0(“non”-word of the year) 2021, as well as the Jugendwort des Jahres (youth word of the year). But there’s one more that I would like to discuss – the\u00a0Anglizismus des Jahres (Anglicism of the year)! Anglizismen\u00a0are…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":13775,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[8,179,376076],"tags":[551848,532859,510876,457016,358620],"class_list":["post-13773","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-language","category-news","category-vocabulary","tag-anglicism","tag-corona-virus","tag-covid-19","tag-german-vocabulary","tag-word-of-the-year"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13773"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13799,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13773\/revisions\/13799"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}