150 words, particularly related to new technologies and the environment, have been selected for the 2024 edition of Petit Robert, explains its editorial director, Tuesday on France Inter.
“I’m in PLS, my crush ghosted me, and it makes me bad.” Need a translation? That means “I’m at the end of my life, the one I like doesn’t give any news and that makes me sad.” But if you haven’t understood anything, you’ll have to get up to speed, because all the words in the first sentence have just entered the dictionary.
>>Are all the words in the world in the dictionary?
France Inter unveils Tuesday, May 9 the 2024 vintage of the Le Petit Robert dictionary, which comes out Thursday, May 11 in bookstores. In total, approximately 150 new words or meanings were selected by the team of lexicographers for the 2024 edition, reflecting the concerns and evolution of society. These new verbs, adverbs or common nouns “are a mirror held up to society”explains on France Inter Géraldine Moinard, editorial director of Robert.
In addition to the words used by young people – there are also spoiler And instragrammable in the 2024 vintage – these 150 new words give pride of place to the environment, with “mega basin”, “climate debt”, “microplastic” or “green washing”. I’“repairability index” and the “low emission zone” are also part of the selection. These new words reflect a certain concern and it is completely normal, judges the editorial director of Robert who recalls that “we need vocabulary to express these fears” with “complosphere which is in this vein”. The lexicographer also indicates that many terms related to new technologies are entering the 2024 vintage: “metaverse, cryptocurrency mining, cryptoart, data mining”list Geraldine Moinard.
Belgian and Quebec words
The security climate also gives rise to the arrival of a new verb “nasser”. It designates the fact that the police surround the demonstrators and has been used in the context of maintaining order during the demonstrations against the pension reform. We will also find in Le Petit Robert 2024 the term “misgender”which means the fact of attributing voluntarily or not to a person a gender in which this person does not identify.
The French language is also enriched with words from other countries or French-speaking regions: “We will find the Belgian word ‘gayole’ which can designate a small cage in which we enclose birds, or a football goal or even a prison”, says Géraldine Moinard. The Quebec term “cloud computing” who comes to translate “cloud”. From abroad, Le Petit Robert also imports a few recipes, and there is something for everyone. THE “mochi”Japanese cake made from glutinous rice paste, or the Korean dish “bibimpab” are on the menu.
Elisabeth Borne and Charles III make their entrance
Finally, as every year, several Anglicisms also enter the dictionary, in particular “crush” (equivalent to crush), “ghost” (no longer give any sign of life to avoid the confrontation of a rupture) or “spoiler” (revealing a key plot element of a movie, series or book). Personalities are also entering Le Robert Illustré 2024, which comes out in bookstores on Wednesday May 17, such as the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, the British King Charles III. Kamel Daoudthe Canadian poet David Goudreault and the French philosopher Genevieve Fraisse also incorporate the Robert.