Word of the year (Norway)

Årets ord (English: Word of the year) is named by the Language Council of Norway, since 2012 in cooperation with the Norwegian School of Economics.^[1]

Choices since 2008 have been finanskrise ('financial crisis'), svineinfluensa ('swine influenza'), askefast ('ash stuck'), rosetog ('rose march'), nave (referring to living on benefits from NAV, the public welfare agency, without really needing it) and sakte-TV ('slow-TV'). In addition, the language council mentions other notable words of the year; since 2012 it has listed ten words.

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The Language Council of Norway has named Årets ord since 2008. Since 2012, the language council has co-operated with word researcher Gisle Andersen at the Norwegian School of Economics.^[1]

The methodology is based on new words that the language council manually picks up from the media during the year. The evaluation of such new words appears most frequently in electronic media text bases and suggestions from the public. The word of the year does not need to be a completely new word, but must have had an increase in use and a special relevance during the year. The committee also evaluates the language quality, in particular whether the word (or if international origin) works well in Norwegian. In addition, the committee considers whether the word is likely to stay in use.^[1]

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Finanskrise ('financial crisis') was named word of the year. The word was not new – between 1947 and 1988, the word was used on average one to four times yearly in Norwegian media according to the search engine Atekst/Retriever. Later, the use of the word increased; in 1988, it was used 598 times and in 2007 it was used 218 times. In 2008, the word was used 10,732 times in newspapers, mainly after October.^[2]

Svineinfluensa ('swine influenza') was named word of the year. While the word had been used 17 times in Norwegian media until 23 April 2009, it was used more than 8,500 times during the rest of the year. Pandemi ('pandemic') was another notable word of the year. The words tvitre and tvitring, which relate to the use of Twitter, were also mentioned as notable new words, as was snikislamisering ('stealth Islamization').^[3]

Askefast ('ash stuck') was named word of the year. The word refers to people who were unable to travel as planned because of the air travel disruption after the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption. Other mentions as notable words were app, nettbrett (tablet computer) and lesebrett (e-reader).^[4]

Rosetog ('rose march') was named word of the year. This referred to marches held in Oslo and other places in Norway following the 2011 terror attacks. Other notable words of the year also related to the terror attacks: kontrajihadisme ('counterjihadism') and ytringsansvar ('speech responsibility'). Other notable words of the year were gjeldskrise ('debt crisis') and eurokrise ('Euro crisis') referring to the situation in Europe, while smørkrise ('butter crisis') referred to the Norwegian butter crisis at the end of the year. Jasminrevolusjon ('jasmine revolution') also received mention.^[5]

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Nave (verb) (and the noun naving) was named word of the year. The word refers to living on pension or welfare from the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration, a government agency called NAV in Norwegian. The word is primarily used for youth who stay out of work for some time. The word was used among youth themselves in 2012, but also among commentators and politicians who expressed worry that young people were abusing the system and not trying hard enough to get a job or start studying.^[6]^[7] Critics of the choice claimed the word was derogatory and added to the stigmatisation of people who receive welfare benefits.^[8]