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'Works-council-infested' named as 'non-word' of 2009

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'Works-council-infested' named as 'non-word' of 2009
Photo: DPA

This 'non-word' of 2009 has been named ‘works-council-infested’ or betriebsratsverseucht - succeeding last year’s non-word, ‘needy banks’, or notleidende Banken.

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Betriebsratsverseucht was first used during a political television show in May during a discussion about workers’ rights, according to daily Die Welt on Tuesday.

Linguist Horst Dieter Schlosser, organiser of the annual non-word poll, said betriebsratsverseucht was picked because it was a “linguistic low point in how those dependent on wages are dealt with.”

He and and a council of other linguists select the annual non-word from suggestions for words or phrases which have emerged in public discourse during the year that are linguistically and politically unpleasant, the paper reported.

Other candidates for the non-word included Flüchtlingsbekämpfung, or "refugee-combat," and Kopftuchmädchen, or "headscarf girl."

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