Dissing, piece and ‘fuffa guru’. Here are the neologisms for 2024 according to Treccani

From dissing to piece, from friendship to arch-terrorist: these are just some of the numerous neologisms of the Italian language published in Treccani Book of the Year 2024. New words that demonstrate how the Italian language is increasingly vital and capable of producing interesting linguistic innovations due to the continuous evolution of customs and fashions, greater attention to the environment or simply to current events, as happened with the piece ( particular decoder used to illegally access the contents of Italian and foreign pay television channels) or with the train. These are words that have now entered common use but are not necessarily destined to be accepted by dictionaries.

Among the many local neologisms identified by Treccani are: friendship, arch-terrorist, piece, agrobiodiversityreal estate racism, honey trap, trainpolitana, guru fluff. And then expressions related to politics such as broad field, split-Italy, differentiated autonomy and also vannacciano and making a Decima and some Latin or pseudo-Latin reminiscences, such as ius scholae or baratellum.

“Ours is the task of observatory of the lifespan of these words – explains Treccani – and in Treccani Book of the Year 2024 we limited ourselves to recording the most widespread forms in the media, aware that often few of these words are destined to last and enter permanently into the use of speakers and dictionaries of the Italian language.

But among the many Italian linguistic new formations this year that could establish themselves, they stand out IA-italianowhich indicates the variety of written Italian produced by various types of generative AI, and 5.0, which designates the production cycle, based on the development of ICT technologies, robotics and artificial intelligence”.

Among the words reported by the Treccani linguists and obtained largely from the media – or rather from information bodies – we also find numerous anglicisms together with words derived from English, such as alcolock, pandoro-gate, dissing, Swift economytop jobs, pommelier, crush, brat, starmerism, Maga or boppone. “The spread of English in common language – observes Treccani – is always very strong, due to the influence of social media and, more generally, of the Internet, music and technological innovation”.

But in some cases the English expression is replaced with the corresponding and more understandable Italian phrase, as happened with intimacy coordinator which translates the English intimacy coordinator. The Book of the Year Treccani 2024, directed by Marcello Sorgi, reconstructs the 365 days that have just passed – news and politics, but also much more: from the achievements of science and technology to the Nobels awarded, from the events of art, music and cinema to all the protagonists of the national and international scene, up to the new president of the United States – through 1,040 insights, 90 articles by great names in journalism, culture and economics, 74 boxes editorials, 100 graphs and maps and 487 images.