Eco-anxiety, fajana or denier are some of the 12 candidates for word of the year for the FundéuRAE

Some of the candidates for word of the year of the Urgent Spanish Foundation, promoted by the Efe Agency and the RAE.

The pandemic has also transformed our vocabulary.

Since in 2013 the Foundation for Urgent Spanish (FundéuRAE) selected the word of the year, they had gained terms or referred to the digital universe

or

or political or social news

or

But since the arrival of the virus, everything has changed.

was chosen in 2020

and among the 12 selected for this year are

or

.

Apart from the coronavirus, there are other issues, such as the environment, the eruption of the La Palma volcano or the arrival of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan.

The winner will be known on December 29.

This is the ninth time that the FundéuRAE, a foundation promoted by the EFE Agency and the Royal Spanish Academy, has chosen its word of the year.

The candidates are of interest from a linguistic point of view, either because of their training, their meaning or the doubts they have generated among the speakers.

The first word of the year for the Foundation was

, in 2013, followed by

(2014),

(2015),

(2016),

(2017),

(2018),

(2019) and

( 2020).

These are the 12 selected for this year:

camper

The pandemic changed the way of tourism.

The phenomenon of campers (adaptation of the anglicized

) has emerged this year as a safer way to travel, avoiding crowds.

It is a word that is already included in the

as a masculine noun (

), although it is also possible to use it in the feminine if it is interpreted that it is a van:

carbon neutrality

Carbon neutrality, carbon neutrality or carbon neutrality is the situation in which the amount of carbon dioxide that is emitted into the atmosphere and that which is removed by other means is the same, resulting in a zero carbon balance.

It was one of the key themes of COP26, in which many countries stated that they will achieve it, at the earliest, in 2050.

The writing of this term has raised many doubts, but it is appropriate to do it in one word:

.

The

option is also suitable

, with the

shortening

being used in other words derived from

.

cryptocurrency

The

compositional element

appears in many terms that have stood out this year.

The most important is, of course,

There are already thousands of them that, together, have reached a value of three trillion dollars.

shortage

The shortage of certain products, especially semiconductors, has put this word in the

, as

well as

, which is also valid and is used especially in Mexico.

eco-anxiety

Ecoansiety

fuses two realities that have been very present in recent months.

On the one hand, concern about the climate crisis.

On the other, mental health, one of the topics that has gained the most presence and visibility lately.

fajana

On September 19, a volcano erupted on the Canary Island of La Palma.

Several weeks later, this event has brought terms to the general population that, until now, were only known in the Canary archipelago and other volcanic regions.

This is the case of

, which has acquired a new use and has been used to define the land reclaimed from the sea created by materials released from the volcano.

megawatt

One of the events that has defined 2021 is the rise in the price of electricity.

For this reason, the term

has appeared in all the media in recent months, as well as its symbol,

(or

for megawatt hour).

metaverse

It is used to describe a representation of reality carried out through virtual reality programs and has been one of the star concepts of the year in the technology sector.

It is a valid adaptation of the English

formed by the element

and the ending

of

.

denier

It is a concept that appears in the

since 2016 and that began to be used to refer to those who denied historical events, such as the Holocaust, or scientists, such as climate change.

The beginning of the pandemic rekindled the use of this word to designate those who do not believe in the existence of the virus and, consequently, reject the usefulness of vaccines.

taliban

On August 15, 2021, the Taliban seized the city of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan.

During the following weeks, the term

was the protagonist of international information around the world.

It is a noun that, in Pashto, the language of Afghanistan, is plural.

However, we have incorporated it into our language as a singular name, so it forms the plural by adding

:

.

vaccine

It is not a new term, but rarely has it resonated with such force as this year, in which vaccines have focused information around the world.

From this word derive many other concepts and expressions that have taken over the media (

...), and new words have even been created from it, such as v

or

.

variant

In November, the last known variant of the coronavirus emerged: the omicron.

Before her, others arrived, also with names in Greek letters: alpha, beta, gamma, delta ...

The

term

starred in one of the FundéuRAE recommendations in the middle of the year due to its usual confusion with

.

They are two different concepts, since

implies that there is a significant change in the behavior of the virus, something that has not happened so far in the pandemic.