FEATURED NEOLOGISM:

I like the Danish neologism “ventesorg,” which very accurately describes a specific feeling. “Ventesorg” is a noun that means ‘the grief one can feel when being a close relative of a person who is terminally ill or mentally gone, for example, due to dementia.’ The word is a compound consisting of the elements “vente,” which can be translated to “waiting,” and “sorg,” which means “grief.” It can be dated back to 2017 in Danish, and it is possibly borrowed from the Norwegian “ventesorg” or the English “anticipatory grief.” You can read more about the word in the Danish neologism dictionary “New Words in Danish 1955 to Today” (https://dsn.dk/ordbog/noid/ventesorg/).

Marianne Rathje is a senior researcher at the Danish Language Council (Dansk Sprognævn, https://dsn.dk/kontakt-os/medarbejdere/marianne-rathje/) and was employed there from 2001-2013 and again from 2019 (in the intervening period at the University of Southern Denmark). She earned her Ph.D. in Danish language in 2009 from the University of Copenhagen. Marianne is one of the editors of the Language Council’s dictionary of neologisms “Nye ord i dansk 1955 til i dag” (“New Words in Danish 1955 to Today”, https://dsn.dk/ordboeger/nye-ord-i-dansk/). Additionally, her current research areas include language and gender/gender neutrality, aggressive language use, and linguistic correctness in the education system and the media. Since 2017, Marianne Rathje has also written the weekly language column “Ugens ord” (“Word of the Week”, https://politiken.dk/tag/main/Ugens_ord) in the newspaper Politiken, focusing on new words and linguistic trends in Danish.