Fundéu
The FundéuRAE (Fundéu being an acronym for Spanish: Fundación del Español Urgente, lit. 'Foundation of Emerging Spanish') is a non-profit organization founded in February 2005 in Madrid, Spain. The foundation was created in collaboration with the Royal Spanish Academy (a government institution that standardizes Spanish) and under the Department of Urgent Spanish of Agencia EFE. It took a new name, Fundéu BBVA, in 2008, and, after a short while with the original name, adopted in 2020 FundéuRAE.[1]
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| Founded | 8 February 2005 |
|---|---|
Word of the year
The Word of the Year (Spanish: Palabra del Año) has been named since 2013 by the Fundéu in collaboration with the Royal Spanish Academy. Fundéu started to name a word of the year in 2013. Javier Lascurain, Fundéu's subdirector and periodist explained "we are looking for a term that is representative of 2013 from the current point of view, of what has been talked about in the media, and that at the same time has a certain linguistic interest due to its formation, its origin, and its use" and announced a shortlist of twelve words.[2]
| Year | Word of the Year | English translation | Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | escrache [3] | escrache | In the first months of 2013, escrache was popularized in Spanish media due to the actions of Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca (Spanish for Platform for People Affected by Mortgages). |
| 2014 | selfi [4] | selfie | |
| 2015 | refugiado [5] | refugee | The armed conflicts in Middle East countries such as Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Eritrea created a great influx of refugees fleeing war and persecution into the Schengen Area; the European Union struggled to cope with the crisis. |
| 2016 | populismo [6] | populism | A word heavily used that year due to Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 United States presidential election, the earliest stances of Brexit and elections in Spain and Peru. |
| 2017 | aporofobia [7] | aporophobia | First coined in the 1990s by Spanish philosopher Adela Cortina, the Senate of Spain approved a motion calling for the inclusion of aporophobia as an aggravating circumstance in the Criminal Code. |
| 2018 | microplástico [8] | microplastics | Half of the twelve shorlisted words in 2018 were terms related to the climate change issue and its widespread before Greta Thunberg's School Strike for Climate. |
| 2019 | emoji [9] | emoji | |
| 2020 | confinamiento [10] | lockdown | 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to many restrictions in Spain and South America as in the rest of the world. |
| 2021 | vacuna [11] | vaccine | Inmunidad del rebaño (herd immunity) and tripanofobia (aichmophobia) were considered in the shorlist for word of the year among other terms related to COVID-19 pandemic as negacionista (negationist) or variante (variant). Also, fajana (fajã) was a word widely used in the media due to the eruption of Cumbre Vieja. |
References
- Las tres instituciones fundamentales del español unidas en FundéuRAE
- "Selection of the word of the year 2013". fundeu.es. 29 December 2013.
- "'Escrache', palabra del año para la Fundéu". elmundo.es. 30 December 2013.
- "'Selfi', elegida palabra del año 2014 para la Fundéu". rtve.es. 30 December 2014.
- ""Refugiado", palabra del año 2015 según la Fundéu". El País. 30 December 2015.
- "¿Cuál es la palabra del año 2016 según la Fundéu?". BBC News Mundo.
- ""Aporofobia", elegida palabra del año por la Fundéu BBVA". lavanguardia.com. 29 December 2017.
- "Microplástico, elegida palabra del año 2018 para la Fundéu". 20minutos.es. 29 December 2018.
- "Los 'emojis', elegidos como la palabra del año 2019 por la Fundéu BBVA". El País. 29 December 2019.
- "Confinamiento, la palabra del año para la Fundéu". publico.es.
- "'Vacuna' la palabra del año 2021 para la Fundéu". redaccionmedica.com.
Bibliography
- Morales, Humberto Lopez. Globalizacion del léxico hispánico. Madrid: Espasa Calpe Mexicana, S.A., 2007.
- Senz Bueno, Silvia. "Fundéu-BBVA: el largo brazo de la RAE en los medios", Addenda et Corrigenda; from Senz, S., and Alberte, M. (eds): El dardo en la Academia. Esencia y vigencia de las academias de la lengua española, Barcelona: Melusina, 2011, p. 239-257.
