More specifically, the new edition of the digital dictionary counts 500 new words. 40 new meanings have been added to already existing words, and 56 fixed expressions are now recognized on paper.
An overall trend behind the new words is that many have a touch of English in them. This is what Marianne Rathje, who researches languages at the Danish Language Board, says.
Identity politics also shows up with words like safe space and woke, she points out.
– It is something we are discussing a lot at the moment, and it is clear that it is contagious in the language, she says.
The linguist attaches in the same embrace by the fact that there is an absence of climate words in the update.
In addition to the many new words, the Danish Dictionary has added 40 new meanings to already existing words.
For example, getting ready for a pot can now also mean that you are tired, and not just that something has been worked through or is ready to be used.
And giving can mean that you admit something. As in: “I give it to you, you are right”.
That words take on new meanings and are used in new ways is a natural part of our communicative need to give language an effect.
Jan Heegård Petersen, who is a linguist and associate professor at the Department of Language Studies at the University of Copenhagen, explains this.
– It is part of the elasticity of language that we take words and use them in new contexts.
Heegård Petersen mentions the word frigid as an example. According to him, it has taken on a whole new meaning. What would once be used as a medical term for a weakened sexual drive in women, is today used as an insult or about something that is sexless.
– What drives the significance is that new things are added. Then we become wiser, and then the old designations are abandoned.
The Danish Language and Literature Society are the ones who update the dictionary. They use databases that screen a constantly updated text collection for new words.
But it is difficult to capture when words take on new meanings.
This is what Henrik Lorentzen, senior editor at Den Danske Ordbog, says, who helps to assess which words should be included.
– They do not enter our IT program because the words are already there.
– But we keep our ears and eyes open. And finally, there is also the fact that people write to us if they experience any new words, and they do so to a great extent.
Source: The Nordic Page