The Urgent Spanish Foundation (FundéuRAE), promoted by the Royal Spanish Academy and the EFE Agency, has already made its preselection for choose what could be considered the word of the year 2024with topics such as housing, technology, tourism and the environment as references for those words.
Like every year, the voices selected by the Foundation meet two requirements, as the entity explains. On the one hand, they are words that have appeared especially frequently in the media and in the social debate in the last twelve months.
On the other hand, we try to ensure that all candidates have some interest from a linguistic point of view: that generate doubts among speakers, that have acquired a new meaning, that have been formed in an unusual way…
This 2024, the words that could be used for the title of the FundéuRAE are, arranged alphabeticallyhallucination, dana, mud, fatphobia, inquiokupa, mena, micropiso, narcolancha, pellet, reduflation, touristification and woke.
The previous winners were escrache (2013), selfie (2014), refugee (2015), populism (2016), aporophobia (2017), microplastic (2018), the emojis (2019), lockdown (2020), vaccine (2021), artificial intelligence (2022) and polarization (2023). The word of the year for 2024 will be known next Thursday, December 19.
The selected words and their reasons
HALLUCINATION
Although it is not a new word, both it and hallucinate have expanded their meaning with the development of artificial intelligence. They are used in the field of technology to refer to the invention of misinformation by artificial intelligence systems. It is an extension of the meaning that these words already had, and it is not necessary to mark them with italics or quotation marks.
DANA
The serious floods in the east and south of the Iberian Peninsula have caused the use in the media to skyrocket during the last quarter of dana (with lowercase letters), the lexicalization of DANA, an acronym for isolated depression at high levels. The dana form has been incorporated into the Dictionary of the Spanish Language in its latest update, which was made public this Tuesday, December 10. If it is used as an acronym, it will be written entirely in capital letters, but it is already used as a lexicalized common noun written in lower case: the dana.
MUD
The consequences of the dana in Spain, and the cleaning work that still continues in many affected places, have multiplied the appearances of the term mud in the Spanish media. Likewise, this noun has been very present in political and social information with its second meaning, ‘vilification, degradation’, a case in which it does not need quotation marks or italics.
FATPHOBIA
Another voice that has been heard this year is fatphobia, written in a single word and without a hyphen. To refer to everything related to it, or to those who have this aversion or rejection, it is grammatically valid to use both the adjective fatphobic and fatphobic, constructed with the endings -fobo and -phobic, respectively.
INQUIOKUPA
The housing problem has focused the attention of citizens, media and politicians in many countries, which is why the words and expressions related to this topic have been special protagonists all year. This neologism is formed from the truncation of tenant, to which the term squatter is added.
ORE
The situation of unaccompanied foreign minors, the name to which the acronym MENA corresponds, who arrive in a new country has been another of the most present political debates in various places. Although as an acronym it is written with capital letters, its lexicalization as a common noun written in lower case is well established: a mena, the menas.
MICRO APARTMENT
Continuing with the question of housing in many countries, another of the terms that has been most repeated has been micropiso, formed by the union of the prefix micro- (which means ‘very small’) to the noun floor, with the meaning of ‘ set of rooms that constitute independent housing in a house of various heights’. Remember that it is written in a single word, without a hyphen or space (not micro-floor or micro-floor).
NARCOLANCHA
The compositional element narco- (which means ‘drug’) appears together with very diverse voices to express its relationship with this type of substances. It is found in narcodollar, drug trafficking or drug violence, and in others of more recent appearance such as narcolancha.
PELLET
Pellet foreignism is currently used in multiple contexts. The word pellet has entered the Dictionary of the Spanish Language (DLE) in its latest update, 23.8. This word – which in Spanish could also be adapted as pellet and, depending on the area, have alternatives such as pellets or granules – was very present, for example, in the Spanish media due to the large spill of small plastic balls that occurred in the beaches of Galicia at the beginning of the year.
REDUCFLATION
The increase in the cost of goods and services in recent months not only translates into higher prices, but sometimes also into a smaller product at the same price. For this reason, the word reduflation, an acronym formed from reduction and inflation, has been another of the most repeated during 2024. It is written with a single ce (not redufflation).
TOURISTIFICATION
The perception of touristification (a valid term to refer to the impact of tourist massification) in certain cities or regions has filled the front pages of newspapers around the world. The increase in tourist housing or the limitation of the arrival of travelers in crowded areas are just two of the aspects that have focused the social debate in 2024. Touristization is also used in a similar sense, although it is more common to refer, in a more neutral, to the fact of making something touristy.
WOKE
This Anglicism is usually translated as an informal adjective with the meaning of ‘sensitive to injustice’, and in Spanish it is used both positively and negatively in multiple contexts. It is written in italics if it is pronounced the same as in English (more or less /wóuk/), but it can be adapted and written in round and without quotes if it is pronounced as it is written, /wóke/.
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