“Goofy” is the youth word of the year, a derogatory term. A German expert explains how swear words change – and what the warm shower principle is all about.
The youth word of the year 2023 is clear: It is “Goofy” and describes a clumsy, silly person or behavior. You could vote online, and participation was in the high six-figure range – higher than ever before, as the Langenscheidt publishing house announced. However, only the votes of 10 to 20 year olds were counted. “Goofy” won with around 39 percent. In the end, three of the original ten favorites remained, all of which sound derogatory. In addition to “Goofy”, these were the terms “Side eye” (2nd place), which means contempt, and “NPC” (3rd place), which stands for “non-player character” and expresses that someone is unimportant. The German scholar Oksana Havryliv researches verbal aggression at the University of Vienna. For her doctorate 30 years ago, she was looking for a lively topic; colleagues jokingly suggested swear words. She took it seriously – and stuck with it.