GERMAN Words of the Year Gammelfleischparty

> WORLD WIDE WORDS ISSUE 617 Saturday 13 December 2008
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> Editor: Michael Quinion, Thornbury, Bristol, UK ISSN 1470-1448
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GERMAN Words of the Year

The publishers of Langenscheidt dictionaries announced their young person's
word of the year (Jugendwort 2008).

They chose "Gammelfleischparty".

It's unflattering youth slang for a gathering of people aged over 30. The
word may be translated as "spoiled meat party".

"Gammelfleisch" has been in the news this year because of a scandal
involving meat packers who were supplying kebab restaurants with products
past their sell-by date.

The runner up in the awards was "Bildschirmbräune": "screen suntan" for the
notoriously pasty faces of computer geeks.

The words were chosen through a poll of young people on a German Web site.