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“Lost” is the 2020 “Youth Word of the Year”. The term describes unsuspecting and unsafe behavior. With 48 percent of the vote, he beat the finalists “Cringe” and “Wyld / Wild”, as a spokeswoman for Pons Verlag in Stuttgart said.
Young people on the Internet were invited to submit proposals and choose the floor in several votes. Meanwhile, a jury had gathered ten words of the best suggestions.
“Cringe”, which could not prevail, describes something shameful and unpleasant that one observes in oneself or in others, sometimes also ashamed of others. Young people use “Wyld” or “Wild” to describe something strange and special.
Linguist Artemis Alexiadou from the Humboldt University of Berlin explains it this way: “Young people often incorporate their own characteristics into their language to differentiate themselves from their parents’ generation. It makes sense to use English.”
Langenscheidt-Verlag held the elections in Munich for years. Langenscheidt was then acquired by Pons in early 2019. In 2019 the choice of the word youth, which is also controversial as an advertising campaign, was stopped.
