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Photo: Sebastian Gollnow / dpa
"Lost" is the "Youth Word of the Year" 2020. The term is used to describe unsuspecting and insecure behavior.
With 48 percent of the vote, it prevailed over the finalists "Cringe" and "Wyld / Wild", as a spokeswoman for Pons Verlag said in Stuttgart.
Young people were invited on the Internet to submit proposals and to choose the word in several votes.
In the meantime, a jury had put together ten words from the best suggestions.
"Cringe", which could not prevail, describes something embarrassing and unpleasant that one observes in oneself or in others - sometimes also ashamed of others.
Young people use "Wyld" or "Wild" to describe something weird and special.
Linguist Artemis Alexiadou from Berlin's Humboldt University explains it this way: "Young people often incorporate their own characteristics into their language in order to differentiate themselves from their parents' generation. It makes sense to use English."
Langenscheidt-Verlag held the election in Munich for years.
Then Langenscheidt was taken over by Pons at the beginning of 2019.
In 2019, the choice of the youth word, which is also controversial as an advertising campaign, paused.
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