“Child torpedo” among the new words of the year

Published December 27, 2024 at 12:33 PM

Cultural news. War, crises and crime make their mark on the 2024 list of new words. But it also contains words that reflect alternative ways of relating to today's social climate.

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– Some of the trends and associated new words we have seen may have been awakened as alternatives to the apocalyptic description of reality. A terian, for example, is someone who dresses up and partly feels like an animal, which offers an existence that probably makes the world both more interesting and easier to bear, says Linnea Hanell, new words editor at the Language Council.

The war in Ukraine, serious crime with links to criminal networks and the current recession have been traced in several new word lists in a row. Even in this year's list, there are events that leave an imprint on the language.

– Newcomers such as barntorped, drakdrönare and ankkurva are typical of a year marked by war, crime and a grim economic situation for both households and companies. The fact that new words continue to be formed in these fields shows that these are topics that we continue to discuss, says Anders Svensson, new word editor at Språktidningen, in a press release.

But there are other trends that also color language. In modern linguistic research, for example, it is said that language not only reflects society but also helps to shape it.

– So it matters what words we have to describe our world. When we have a word like bratsommar, we can experience messy decadence during the summer period as a lifestyle. And with the word rawdogga, it suddenly becomes a thing to do nothing, says Linnea Hanell.

English is still the most common source of loanwords. But the 2024 list of new words also includes dragon drone, which is a translation loan of the Ukrainian dron-drakon (дрон-дракон) and umarell, which is borrowed from Emilian, a language spoken in northern Italy.

– Thematically, these are two new words that are far apart. Dragon drone is a new type of weapon while a umarell is an older man who is looking at a large building in the public space. But together, these are words that show that the influx into Swedish comes from many different directions, says Anders Svensson.

The list of new words has been compiled by the Language Council and the Language newspaper. The list contains 32 words that have been coined or have become more common during 2024. The words should say something both about the past year and about linguistic trends, as patterns for how new words are formed and borrowed into Swedish.

The entire list of new words for 2024 with word explanations, comments and examples of how the words are used can be read on the Language Council's website.