After a two-week battle, the Van Dale Word of the Year 2022 goes to klimaatklever (Climate adhesive), and we think it’s fanta-stick!
What is a “Climate adhesive”, you may ask? Well, it describes “activists clinging to an object of symbolic value to draw public attention to climate change.”.
Over one-quarter of the 15,000 voters chose “klimaatklever” as the winner for 2022.
Tough competition
While we’re loving klimaatklever, we really love the Dutch innovation for the word that came in second place: sevenvinker.
Sevenvinker (Seven Ticker) is someone who ticks off seven items on an imaginary list:
✅ Man (man)
✅ Blank (white)
✅ Hetero (straight)
✅ Afgerond VWO (above-average high school education)
✅ Universitaire opleiding (university education)
✅ Autochtone vader of moeder (native father/mother)
✅ Rijke of hoogopgeleide ouders (wealthy or highly-educated parents)
And yes, we do know a lot of sevenvinkers in the Netherlands. 🙄
Meanwhile, third place went to energietoerisme (energy tourism), which describes someone who travels to a warmer country in the winter to escape the rising energy prices.
Be right back, gotta book flights. ✈️
Previous Dutch Words of the Year
Like those Dutch words? Here are the winners of recent years:
- prikspijt (jab regret) in 2021
- Anderhalvemetersamenleving (one-and-a-half-metre society) in 2020
- boomer (boomer) in 2019
Woman of the year?
In the United States, Dictionary.com’s Word of the Year was “woman.”. According to the website, the word depicts “how the intersection of gender, identity, and language dominates the current cultural conversation and shapes much of our work as a dictionary.”
“Inflation”, “quiet quitting,” and “democracy” also made the American list.
All in all, great words, but klimaatklever ready does stick the best. 😉
What do you think of the word of the year? Tell us in the comments below.