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Miscellaneous See other Miscellaneous Articles Title: Shitstorm 'best English gift to German language' Germany needed Shitstorm, according to a group of language experts who elected the word as the top English contribution to the German language last year. The “Anglicism of the Year” jury defined Shitstorm as a public outcry, primarily on the internet, in which arguments mix with threats and insults to reach a critical mass, forcing a reaction. “This new kind of protest is clearly different in kind and degree from what could be expected in the past in response to a statement or action,” said jury member Michael Mann, who runs a language website called Lexikographieblog. The jury said in a statement on Monday: “Shitstorm fills a gap in the German vocabulary that has become apparent through changes in the culture of public debate.” It added that established German words, such as Kritik (criticism), were simply not descriptive enough. Shitstorm came into widespread use last year in connection with the financial crisis in Greece and the plagiarism scandal which forced the then Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg to resign. The second most important Anglicism this year was Stresstest, referring to the analysis of banks’ financial strength during the European financial crisis, the jury decided. Rounding out the top three was circeln which comes from the new social network Google+ and means to add someone to a contact list. The Anglicism of the Year contest, organised since 2010 by University of Hamburg linguist Anatol Stefanowitsch, is designed to recognise English’s contribution to German as the language evolves. "The borrowing of words is a natural process that occurs in any language," the jury’s statement said. The big winner in 2010 was leaken, which was adopted during controversies such as the sensitive leaking of government information to the Wikileaks website. The Local/DPA/mdm Poster Comment: From among comments: William Thirteen indeed, it was the lea ken of the results of the stresstests which caused the shitstorm. floridaboy This word has been around for years and is nothing new...and most certainly American. My friends and I have been using it since high school. I'm a bit too young to verify, but I think this expression even goes as far back as the Vietnam war. i.e. (we went over the hill and found ourselves in a real shitstorm) It just means to encounter (or be in) a bad situation. You can use it for anything, and is not limited to anything specific. For instance... - If I asked my roomie how his date went last night, he could easily reply - "it was a f'ing shitstorm". - When playing basketball and getting slaughtered by the opposing team, we could comment afterwards, "Well that was a god damn shitstorm". I'm all for languages influencing other languages, but it's super annoying when the adopting language the butchers the definition. Maybe the "jury" should talk to some Americans (or English if it's an English term) and find out how the term is used before defining it incorrectly. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: Tatarewicz (#0)
All language change is annoying to those that harbor prescriptive notions of one kind or another. Words flip meanings, like counterfeit, borrowed from French, which once meant a fair copy. They become perjorative, like silly,which once meant blessed or happy, or acquire a positive connotation, like nice which once meant stupid or foolish. Nuttin' you can do about it.
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