Language-critical action
“Pushback” is the “bad word of the year” for 2021
The “Unword of the Year” is chosen every year by a jury
© Frank Rumpenhorst / DPA
A jury has chosen the expression “Pushback” as “Unword of the Year” in 2021. In second place was a term intended to defame people who advocate non-discriminatory language use.
“Pushback” is the “bad word of the year” in 2021. A jury of linguists in Marburg, Hesse, explained the choice with the term an inhumane process of pushing refugees back to the borders. As the language critical campaign, which has chosen the word since 1991, announced that this time a total of 1308 entries were received, in which 454 different expressions were suggested for the choice of the non-word. Many proposals would have affected the corona pandemic, such as “boosters”, “Covidiot” or “tyranny of the unvaccinated”. Of the submissions, however, only 45 met the jury’s criteria.
Unword of the year: After “Pushback” follows “Sprachpolizei”
In second place, the linguists chose the term “language police”, which was intended to defame people who advocate an appropriate, non-discriminatory use of language. In third place came comparisons with National Socialism, which were used by vaccination opponents in the course of the corona demonstrations – for example “Impfnazi” or “Enabling Act” for the Infection Protection Act.
The jury wants to draw attention to inappropriate use of language by choosing an “unword” every year and thus sensitize it. Terms are criticized that violate the principles of human dignity or democracy, that discriminate against social groups, or that are euphemistic, obscure or misleading. The number of suggestions received for a single word does not matter.
The “bad words” from previous years were presented in Darmstadt. With a change in the jury, the announcement has now moved to the University of Marburg. Recently there were two “bad words”: For 2020 these are “Corona dictatorship” and “repatriation sponsorships”. According to the jury, the measures to contain the corona pandemic are discredited with “Corona dictatorship”. The word “repatriation sponsorships” describes a migration policy mechanism proposed by the EU Commission in which one EU member state relieves another country of responsibility for the deportation of rejected asylum seekers.