"Rescue package" voted Swiss word of the year
"Rescue package" is the Swiss word of the year 2008, having won out over other expressions from the financial crisis vocabulary such as "bonuses", "financial injection" or "liquidity bottleneck".
"Rescue package" is the Swiss word of the year 2008, having won out over other expressions from the financial crisis vocabulary such as "bonuses", "financial injection" or "liquidity bottleneck".
The word "rescue package" has undergone an impressive change in meaning, writes the jury, made up of various media professionals, in a statement on Thursday. Before the financial crisis, rescue packages were put together for famines and disasters. Now the term illustrates the importance and need for state intervention to save the economy.
According to the jury, other important terms last year were "Botellón", "Raser" and the "Task Force Cervelat".
The European Football Championship gave Switzerland the bad word of the year 2008: "Europhoria". According to the jury, the slogan did not make the leap into colloquial language. This shows that Switzerland does not allow itself to become euphoric.
The phrase of the year remains political. After Neo-Federal Councillor Ueli Maurer was crowned last year with the statement "The Rütli is just a meadow with cow dung", this year it is the turn of German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück. With the statement "We must not only use the carrot, but also the stick", he fulfills the cliché of the ugly German to an excessive degree and does a disservice to the German population in Switzerland, writes the jury.
For five years now, a "Word of the Year" has been chosen in Switzerland at the end of each year. Previous winners have included terms such as "smoking ban", "Aldisierung", "Meh Dräck", "Konkordanz" and "Sterbetourismus".
The word "rescue package" has undergone an impressive change in meaning, writes the jury, made up of various media professionals, in a statement on Thursday. Before the financial crisis, rescue packages were put together for famines and disasters. Now the term illustrates the importance and need for state intervention to save the economy.
According to the jury, other important terms last year were "Botellón", "Raser" and the "Task Force Cervelat".
The European Football Championship gave Switzerland the bad word of the year 2008: "Europhoria". According to the jury, the slogan did not make the leap into colloquial language. This shows that Switzerland does not allow itself to become euphoric.
The phrase of the year remains political. After Neo-Federal Councillor Ueli Maurer was crowned last year with the statement "The Rütli is just a meadow with cow dung", this year it is the turn of German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück. With the statement "We must not only use the carrot, but also the stick", he fulfills the cliché of the ugly German to an excessive degree and does a disservice to the German population in Switzerland, writes the jury.
For five years now, a "Word of the Year" has been chosen in Switzerland at the end of each year. Previous winners have included terms such as "smoking ban", "Aldisierung", "Meh Dräck", "Konkordanz" and "Sterbetourismus".
