The Centre for the Luxembourgish Language once again brought the nation's vocabulary into focus with its "Word of the Year" initiative, spotlighting key terms that defined 2024.

For the fifth consecutive year, the Centre for the Luxembourgish Language (ZLS) has launched its "Word of the Year" initiative, inviting public participation alongside expert voting. This year's edition also saw contributions from several media partners, including Radio 100,7, RTL, Tageblatt, and Luxemburger Wort.

Current events played a significant role in shaping the selection process, with one particularly notable case influencing two of the top-ranking words.

The initiative, which began in mid-November, aimed to elect Luxembourg's Word of the Year 2024 through active public involvement. For several weeks, up until St Nicholas Day, residents were invited to submit their suggestions to the ZLS. The organisation received around 420 entries, comprising approximately 250 unique words.

Many of the proposed words were linked to major events that marked 2024, including terms like "genocide," "Gaza," "Trumpism," "MAGA," "papal visit," and the "kangaroo saga" that garnered attention in late spring.

Submissions also reflected the influence of youth culture, with words such as the English term "cringe," which has been submitted every year so far, as well as "cimer" (a French slang inversion for "merci"), "gars" (French for "boy" or "lad"), and the English word "lost". Global events, including the Olympic Games and Eurovision, also left their mark on the entries.

Traditional Luxembourgish words featured prominently as well, with entries such as "Gemauschels" (secrets, whispering), "Intebinnes" (blockhead), "nondikass" (damn), and "Pimpampel" (butterfly).

Ultimately, the ZLS team shortlisted 20 words for final consideration by a jury. The selection process took into account factors such as the word's comprehensibility and prevalence in everyday use. The jury included ZLS members, journalists, and Luxembourg linguists.

Results for 2024

  1. Presidententrick (CEO scam)
  2. Caritas-Affär (Caritas affair)
  3. Heescheverbuet (begging ban)
  4. Rietsruck (shift to the right)
  5. Grenzkontrollen (border controls)

The top five words of 2024 are all compound words–terms formed by combining two or more existing words. In Luxembourgish, as in most Germanic languages, compound words are typically written as single, unified terms. This contrasts with English, another Germanic language, where compounds are often written as separate words.
 
This year's winner, "Presidententrick", succeeds previous Words of the Year in Luxembourg, including "KI" (artificial intelligence, "kënschtlech Intelligenz" in Luxembourgish) in 2023, "Ukrainkrich" (Ukraine war) in 2022, "boosteren" (to receive or administer a booster shot) in 2021, and "Corona" in 2020.