Non-fungible tokens (NFT in English), wokism and halloumi are among the words that enter the 2023 edition of the French dictionary Laroussethe publishing house announced on Monday.
“This new edition incorporates 150 new words, meanings, phrases and expressions testifying to both the vitality and the diversity of the French language,” said Larousse editions in a press release.
The dictionary thus defines the NFT (or JNF in French) as a “non-reproducible and tamper-proof digital file representing a unique asset, virtual or physical object (work of art, tweet, piece of music, etc.), which is listed in a blockchain and to which is associated a digital certificate of authenticity and ownership. »
The Larousse also devotes “crypto art”, the artistic movement that produces NFTs.
As for “wokism”, it is the “woke-inspired ideology, centered on questions of equality, justice and the defense of minorities, sometimes perceived as prejudicial to republican universalism”.
Separatism (“willingness of a minority, generally religious, to place its own laws above national legislation”), invisibilization or grossophobia are also adopted.
The COVID-19 pandemic remains an important provider of new terms, including “long COVID”, “vaccination pass” and “sanitary”, “vaccinodrome”, but also “essential trade” or even “enfermiste” and “reassurance” to characterize the two antagonistic discourses on public health measures.
Among the foreign words, Cypriot halloumi cheese will rub shoulders with konjac (Japanese plant), kakapo (New Zealand parrot), chick bed (literature for young women in English), the tomte (Swedish leprechaun) or the yodel (singing technique from the German-speaking Alps).
As for proper names, the Larousse devotes the French designer Olivier Rousteing, the American dancer Misty Copeland, the French cook Thierry Marx or even the Filipino-American journalist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Angelita Ressa.
The dictionary, one of the two reference in France with Robert, celebrates its 170th anniversary. Coming out June 15, it has over 64,000 words and some 28,000 proper nouns.