The editors of the Lidové noviny daily chose ‘drought’ as the word that best describes the year 2018 , as this is what the Czech Republic faced for three quarters of the year, when temperature records were broken and the levels of rivers and underground water supplies dropped below historic values.
These were the other words in the shortlist ordered according to the number of votes they received:
‘Čučkaři’ – originally a dialect term from southern Moravia, which President Miloš Zeman used to refer to BIS intelligence officers in response to passages in the annual report in which the secret service warned of the growing number of Russian and Chinese spies.
’Brexit’ – a term dating back to 2016 (from Britain and exit), when the UK voted in a referendum to end its membership of the European Union; but this year it has often been used in connection with the approaching date – 21 January 2019 – when the British PMs are to vote on the withdrawal deal
‘Zpovykaný’ – an almost unused Czech term was dusted off by former Prague mayor Adriana Krnáčová (ANO) when she used it to refer to Prague residents unhappy with confusing traffic closures. It caught on immediately and rival Civic Democrats used it in their local election campaign right in their slogan, “Prague’s spoilt people vote for ODS”.
‘GDPR’ – the European data protection regulation, which came into force at the end of May 2018, was intended to protect citizens when their personal data are disclosed, but instead it became an omnipresent nightmare for Czechs.
‘Novichok’ – the nerve agent used to poison former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury. The attack sparked one of the biggest diplomatic spats in recent years, with Britain pointing to Russia as the culprit. The latter objected to the accusation by saying that the poison could have come from anywhere, a claim supported by President Miloš Zeman, who pointed to his own country as the possible origin of the poison, as it is tested in trace quantities in special military facilities in our country.
‘Gender’ – the main topic addressed in connection with the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, better known as the Istanbul Convention. It focuses primarily on gender-based violence against women. Its critics claim that it is redundant in our environment, introduces positive discrimination (favours women over men) and challenges the traditional family (woman + man + children) and the traditions and culture of our society.
‘Subsidies’ – a term that appeared with increased frequency last year in connection with the Čapí hnízdo (Stork’s Nest) project involving Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO).
‘Bark beetle’ – prolonged above-average temperatures accelerated the spread of the spruce bark beetle, which led to the infestation of a large number of trees. The “bark beetle calamity” resulted in a drop in the price of infected timber, for which there was no market, and in the felling of many trees with hiking trail signs, which the Czech Hikers’ Club struggles to replace.
‘Yellow vests’ – a protest movement that started in France and spread to neighbouring countries; it started as a protest against a fuel tax increase, with demonstrators wearing reflective vests from car emergency kits, and continued with demonstrations against the general political situation and standard of living. In some places, the protests grew into civil unrest, barricades and looting.
‘Plagiarism’ – former Justice Minister Taťána Malá (ANO) and former Labour Minister Petr Krčál (ČSSD) had to resign from their posts for plagiarism in their university dissertations. Searching through old dissertations and monographs became the work of many editorial offices, associations, political parties and students.
‘Orphan’ – MEP Michaela Šojdrová(KDU-ČSL) came up with a proposal to show solidarity and accept 50 Syrian children; subsequently, 50 Czech families were found who were willing to take these children, but Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO) rejected this initiative and called it a political campaign.
‘Tiger broth’ – the authorities managed to break up a gang that was killing tigers to illegally make traditional Chinese medicine products, with broth cooked for several days using tiger bones being the most lucrative. One of the defendants in this case is Ludvík Berousek, a relative of a famous circus family. As a result, the case has sparked a debate over the operation of circuses and animal performances.
You can take a look at the words that scored highly with the readers of lidovky.cz in previous years here: https://www.lidovky.cz/domov/slovo-roku-2018-ctenari-serveru-lidovky-cz-vybrali-rambohafika-ln-zvolily-sucho.A181228_120743_ln_domov_ele
In English-speaking countries, the word of the year 2018, according to the encyclopaedia company Merriam-Webster, was ‘justice’ – related to the controversy surrounding the workings of Donald Trump’s administration; the online dictionary Oxford Dictionaries chose the word ‘toxic’ – used to refer to aggressive, offensive language rather than a hazardous substance or chemical; the Dictionary.com service chose the term ‘misinformation’ – because of the debate over a demagogic campaign by Russian trolls tracked down by U.S. intelligence agencies and investigated by a team of investigators from the FBI. When selecting a word, Internet companies look for the frequency of terms in searches.
The German word of the year 2018, as declared bythe German Language Society (GfdS), is the term ’Heiszeit’ (heat age or heat period), referring to the extreme summer heat and warming of the Earth’s climate. In second place came the term ‘Funklochrepublik’, used in connection with the criticism that Germany, especially in rural areas, is full of dead spots without mobile signal, which also became a topic in the run-up to the parliamentary elections, with the debate focusing on how quickly the country should build infrastructure for the latest fifth-generation (5G) network standard. A term related to the migration crisis, ‘Ankerzentren’ , referring to centres where the authorities want to sort migrants, made the third place in the rankings.
Other words in the top ten include ‘Diesel-Fahrverbot’ (diesel ban), referring to the ban on diesel cars in city centres, ‘Handelskrieg’ (trade war), ‘Brexit-Chaos’ and ‘die Mutter aller Probleme’ (mother of all problems), which, according German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer , is migration.
Mgr. Petra Sendlerová, Translation and Interpreting Methodologist