Every year, Germany's dictionary giant Langenscheidt selects the German Youth Word of the Year. In 2017, a new version of "I am" was singled out. Take a look at previous winners, as well as this year's candidates.
Every year since 2008, the German publisher Langenscheidt, specializing in dictionaries, has been selecting the "Jugendwort des Jahres" (Youth Word of the Year).
This year's winner is "I bims," a variation of "Ich bin," or I am, the publishing house revealed on Friday.
Teens are invited to submit their favorite terms each year, and 30 of them were preselected as potential candidates.
More than a million votes
While people could vote for their favorite expression online, the final decision was taken by a jury of 20 members. On the online voting platform, "I bims" came in 10th.
The most popular expression among voters was "Geht fit," which means that everything's good.
About a million people voted online this year, more than ever before, said Langenscheidt.
The gallery above reviews the terms that have been chosen since the beginning of the initiative. You can find out more about the words that were popularized this year by clicking through the gallery below.
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10 words German teens made popular in 2017
Selfiecide
Combining the words "selfie" and "suicide" and referring to a person who dies while trying to take a selfie, the term has also been used in English for several years. Compared to the people who've taken selfies on top of skyscrapers or while jumping off a cliff, this women is "relatively" cautious with her selfie attempt on Mount Merapi in Indonesia.
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10 words German teens made popular in 2017
Looten
A German verb ending is added to the English term to loot, but young people use "looten" as slang for shopping. Last July in Hamburg, some people applied the term literally during the anti-G20 summit protests.
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10 words German teens made popular in 2017
Squad
This one is obviously easy to understand for English speakers: it's the crew, the gang, the posse. "Squad" is used by German teens to refer to an extremely cool group of people — such as these pictured Sapeurs, members of a subculture born in the 1960s in Congo, who like to dress flamboyantly.
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10 words German teens made popular in 2017
Sozialtot
Egyptian protesters are on Twitter. Your grandmother is on Facebook. But you don't see why you should be following Instagram influencers. You decide to be the only person in the world to completely avoid social media. You're free to do so, but you must know that in the eyes of German teens, you're "sozialtot" — socially dead.
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10 words German teens made popular in 2017
Lit
Already popular in English as a term for "cool," lit has also been adopted in Germany. According to the Urban Dictionary, it was already used by jazz musicians in the 1950s to describe being just drunk enough to play better, without being too wasted. If Billie Holiday (pictured) knew how to get lit at the beginning of her career, her alcoholism also led to her early death at the age of 44.
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10 words German teens made popular in 2017
Nicenstein
A combination of "nice" and "Frankenstein," with some distortion of the German superlative form "-sten," "nicenstein" is a term whose invention is attributed to Michael Krogmann, a host of the German livestream channel Rocket Beans TV, popular among the country's youth. Nicenstein means "perfect, fulfilling all wishes" — like this Halloween chihuahua.
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10 words German teens made popular in 2017
Tacken
The traditional pastime for people who like to sit for longer periods on the throne was to read. The smartphone offers many alternative options, and German teens now have a term for those who take that private time to send text messages: "tacken," which switches the T in "kacken," which means to take a dump.
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10 words German teens made popular in 2017
Schatzlos
"Schatz," or treasure, is one of the most popular terms of endearment in German. Those who don't have anyone to call that way are "schatzlos," or single. If you suddenly become treasure-less, remember that things could be worse: Berlin's Bode Museum became the country's laughingstock when thieves popped in one night this year and rolled away with the Big Maple Leaf, a million-dollar Canadian coin.
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10 words German teens made popular in 2017
Tinderjährig
If you're "schatzlos," you might be using Tinder to find your next match. The German word for minor, "minderjährig," led to a wordplay with the popular dating app's name, as the minimum age to sign up and use Tinder is 18.
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10 words German teens made popular in 2017
Napflixen
Are you the type of person who drifts off while the TV's on? Then you like to "napflix." German youths didn't come up with this one, either. A video platform called Napflix apes the Netflix logo and offers footage celebrating "monotony and repetition" specially selected for your siesta.
eg/cmk (dpa, kna)
