Entlassungsproduktivität

Paris Marathon Training: Week 8 of 18
Today’s target run: rest day

Every January, a five member linguistic panel, known as Unwort des Jahres, chooses a German word that they consider “grossly deceptive, evasive, euphemistic and possibly harmful to human dignity”. Whoa…OK…right on, bro!

This year, the winner, and this year’s entrant into the German vocabulary hall of shame is “Entlassungsproduktivität." Definition, please.

"Entlassungsproduktivität" refers to increased productivity at a firm after a usually big round of lay-offs. It is a word used more often, at least in economics circles in Germany, as companies seek to control costs and remain competitive in a globalized marketplace, often at the expense of employees.

Why did this word win? According to the panel, because this word “veils the excessive burden put on those who were able to keep their job after large-scale job cuts”. Apparently “its euphemistic treatment of a phenomenon that can have very negative effects on a community did not sit well with the language experts”.

I thought it was simply because the word might have too many letters. Upon review of all the winners, now I understand that this is a serious thing…read on.

Second prize goes to "Ehrenmord," or "honor killing," which it says serves to put an inappropriate spin on "the killing of usually female family members because of archaic ideas of family honor which are unacceptable in our culture."

The bronze went to "Bombenholocaust," or "Holocaust of bombs," a term used by the far-right in Germany to refer to the World War Two bombing of Dresden and which the jury “found minimized the magnitude and uniqueness of the Nazi's genocidal campaign against Europe's Jews”.