Smash is youth word of the year. For everyone who is now thinking: Huh? Smash is something like the modern geil, so good, and comes from English. It is mainly used as a verb (smashen) and means something like starting something with someone, picking someone up or even having sex with someone. The object of desire can also be a smash, with which you in turn have a small smash (rendezvous). Understood? Incidentally, in English the word is used more in the sense of smashing, smashing or breaking.
Smash clearly prevailed in a voting by Langenscheidt-Verlag with 43 percent of the votes. Young people had previously voted on their favorite word in several rounds. In second place is bottomless (lousy, unbelievably bad) with 33 percent, third is doer, i.e. the term for someone who implements things without hesitation (24 percent).
This year’s winner was developed from the dating game “Smash or Pass”. Potential partners are either accepted as a smash or rejected as a pass. As a user of the dating app Tinder, you would swipe right on a smash and left on a pass.
Langenscheidt has been publishing the youth word of the year since 2008 – at that time the Gammelfleischparty (over 30 party) won. In the past it was discussed whether young people even know or use the youth word of the year. According to the publisher, all age groups can theoretically vote in the election, but since 2020 only the votes of young people have been counted. Since then, the selection has generated fewer frowns than previous winner words such as level limbo, smombie, and tinder.
According to the publisher, the total number of votes cast this year was “in the high six-digit range”. According to the publisher, the relevant quota of participants between the ages of 10 and 20 was 77 percent. Around 1.2 million people voted last year. The winner at that time was cringe (shaming of others).