“Microplástico” is Spain’s word of the year 2018

[mount_oregano]

Spain’s Fundéu BBVA, which addresses critical questions about the Spanish language, has chosen microplástico (microplastics) as its word of the year for 2018.

The foundation chooses its word of the year from terms in the news. This word “highlights the awareness of one of the great environmental problems facing humanity,” according to the foundation’s website: many of the questions that the media had for Fundéu BBVA this year involved words related to the environment, which led to the selection of microplastico.

Fundéu BBVA explains: “Microplastics are small fragments of plastic (less than five millimeters) that are manufactured at that size for cleaning or hygiene products or that break off from larger pieces of plastics (shopping bags, containers of all kinds) during their decomposition. Their presence in the sand on beaches, in organisms in animals, in the sea salt we consume, and even in the water we drink have set off alarm bells, leading the reduction of single-use plastics, which are responsible for much of the problem.” [My translation.]

Runner-up words for 2018 were: descarbonizar (to reduce carbon emissions), hibridar (make hybrid, as with cars), mena (“menor extranjero no acompañado” or unaccompanied foreign minor immigrant), los nadie (the nobodies, people invisible or overlooked by society), micromachismo (male supremacist microagressions), VAR (“videoarbitraje” or video assistant referee), sobreturismo (overtourism), procrastinar (procrastinate), arancel (tariff), dataísmo (tendency to consider data supremely important) and nacionalpopulismo (alt-right).

Its word of the year for 2013 was escrache (a kind of protest), 2014 selfi (selfie), 2015 refugiado (refugee), 2016 populismo (populism), and 2017 aporophobia (fear of poverty and poor people).

Meanwhile, here in English, the words of the year were toxic according to Oxford Dictionaries; misinformation, Dictionary.com; single-use, Collins Dictionary; and justice, Merriam-Webster.

As I noted earlier, I can only conclude that in the English-speaking world, the year 2018 had a lot of problems. The Spanish-speaking world had the similar problems. Now 2019 is about to land on us. What will we talk about? Our larger conversations are certain to remain troubled and troubling.

— Sue Burke

Comments

[cmcmck]

I suspect we'll still be talking about $%^&*! Brexit.

Happy New Year (I hope :o)

[mount_oregano]

According to Fundéu BBVA, the way to say "Brexit" in Spanish is "brexit," not capitalized but in italics, and it is of ambiguous gender, so it can be "el brexit" or "la brexit."

Now you know.

Happy 2019, if at all possible.

[thnidu]

We can wish each other a happy New Year. A happy New Year to you and to our hostess!

[mount_oregano]

Thank you! I hope the year is filled with unexpected delights.

[thnidu]

How would that "x" be pronounced in castellano? (IPA:) [gz]? [ks]? [x]?

[mount_oregano]

The "x" is pronounced just like it is in English: [ks]. The vowels are a little different, though, a long A and a long E sound. It would be said, if it were English words, like "BREAK-seat" (note that the "ea" in each word sounds different). (When I lived in Spain and taught English to teenagers, they though English spelling was the hardest part of the language, and I agreed with them.)

[thnidu]

Thank you.
As a (retired) linguist, I had a pretty good sense of the vowel qualities. But written "x" has at least two possible pronunciations, and in a modern loan word even more.

Respectfully submitted,
Dr. Whom: Consulting Linguist, Grammarian, Orthoëpist, and Philological Busybody
Editor and Proofreader

[pjthompson]

Here's hoping for a happy new year for us all, and freedom from both Brexit and Agent Orange.

[mount_oregano]

¡Ojalá! (Let's hope so!)