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'Shitstorm' becomes official German word

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'Shitstorm' becomes official German word
Photo: DPA

Facebook, Flashmob, and Shitstorm - the new edition of the official German dictionary Duden, to appear Thursday, contains a number of new words that probably sound familiar to Anglo ears.

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Apart from new internet and computer-related words, including App, Social Media, and "Compi" (slang for computer), the dictionary also contains a number of new words related to the euro crisis, including Eurobond, and Finanztransaktionssteuer (financial transaction tax).

"The vocabulary changes so much every three or four years that it makes sense to re-vamp the standard work," said Duden editor-in-chief Werner Scholze-Stubenrecht.

Another new word is Vorständin to denote a female executive board member. Other words from the last edition, which came out in 2009, have been taken out, because they are barely in use anymore.

The 26th edition of the dictionary - considered the standardized version of all the words in the German language - contains around 5,000 neologisms. It is also the first edition of the dictionary to be published in Berlin, rather than Mannheim in western Germany.

Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit will receive his own copy at a special ceremony at the Brandenburg Gate on Wednesday.

The new Duden dictionary contains some 140,000 words - estimated to be about ten times the vocabulary of the average German.

The Local/bk

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