A late addition to our list of Words of the Year 2012 is that of Onze Taal, ‘the Dutch association for language lovers’.

That word is ‘plofkip‘ (literally ‘exploding chicken’), a propaganda word meaning ‘broiler’.

Second and third place went to ‘appen’ (to Whatsapp) and ‘pandapunt’ (points you get for sexual abstinence). Plofkip got 44% of the votes.

(Link: Eamelje. Photo by Flickr user normanack, some rights reserved)

Ruzzle is a simple word game in which you have to tap a series of connected letters on a randomized grid to form as many words as you can in two minutes.

Here is a video by a guy called Flupkees who can guess 136 Dutch words in a single session (of the 302 possible words). He is going so fast I cannot even follow what is going on: pot, poter, poten, po, pon, ???, pik, pikt, pikte, prik, prikt, prikte and so on.

(Video: YouTube/Flupkees. Link: Marc van Oostendorp)

Project X-feest, a Project X party, has been voted the Dutch word of the year by dictionary maker Van Dale, Onze Taal reports.

The word refers to a spontaneous party to which everybody is invited, and is named after the movie Project X which tells the story of a similar party. In September this year the small town of Haren suffered over 1 million euro in damages after looters and rioters visited Project X Haren.

The second place was awarded to the word bangalijst, a list of girls that are considered ‘easy’.

Some other words from the West considered good, influential or popular, all from Onze Taal:

• Omnishambles (English word of the year according to Oxford Dictionaries): “a situation that has been comprehensively mismanaged, and is characterized by a string of blunders and miscalculations”.
• GIF (American English word of the year according to Oxford Dictionaries): type of image format, popular because it allows for simple animations.
• Yolo (German word of the year according to Der Spiegel): abbreviation for ‘you only live once’.
• Watture (French word of the year according to Le Point): electric car (watt + voiture).
• Frietchinees (Dutch word of the year in Belgium according to Van Dale): a French fries stall run by a Chinese person.
• Pandapunten (most beautiful Dutch word says the Instituut voor Nederlandse Lexicologie): points you get for abstaining from sex.

Some of the ugliest words:

• Throughput (Dutch, the ugliest word in education).
• Grexit (ugliest Dutch word says the Instituut voor Nederlandse Lexicologie): the expulsion of Greece from the Eurozone.

One of my personal favourites, after watture, is the German word komasutra, the result of drunk people attempting to make love.