As the jury reports:
The poll for the 2022 Youth Word of the Year has been decided. By a large margin, online voters chose the word: essa – widely known and used among young people as a sign of joy, triumph or positive emotions in general. Among the most popular combinations with the word essa were those indicating relaxation and a state of bliss, such as mieć essę or być na essie. In this context, it is worth recalling that the winning word also has non-verbal variants. It may appear as a gesture or an emoji.
One of the greatest popularizers of the winning word is Wini, or Winicjusz Bartków, a well-known rapper, entrepreneur and, for several years, popular YouTuber. (He is shown in the header image).
This was not the only word honored by linguists. The jurors:
The panel, meanwhile, decided to award the Jury Prize to a word that came close to the podium: odklejka. The word refers to a state or, potentially, people who are detached from reality, and this aspect concerns not only behavior and mood, but also the assessment of spoken content: “When – as the honored definition indicates – someone has drifted too far into the land of dreams and lives in their own world.” Odklejka had already appeared in colloquial language, but young people rediscovered it thanks to slang terms with the prefix od- referring to people, such as: odklejony, odklejus, odkleja.
Many votes were also cast for terms such as: slay, łymyn, betoniarz and NPC.
More information about the poll and the nominated words (and what they mean) can be found on PWN’s website.
(Header image: https://www.instagram.com/wininieoficjalnie/).