‘Cuddle contact’ has been voted the word of the year in Flanders in a vote by Van Dale, the makers of the Dutch dictionary.
A cuddle contact is the person, apart from any family members, whom you're allowed to have close (physical) contact with. It was first used by Federal Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke at a Consultatiive Committee press conference. The word even made international news.
The word won more than half of the 25,000 votes, coming in at 53.2%. The second and third place - ‘covidioot’ (covidiot) and ‘hoestschaamte’ (coughing shame) - were far behind, with 8.7% and 7.3% of the votes respectively.
In the Netherlands, the word ‘anderhalvemetersamenleving’ (metre-and-a-half society) received the most votes.
The entire list of contenders was as follows:
Aanloopleren (the Dutch-language equivalent to preteaching)
Anderhalvemetersamenleving
Contactspeurder (contact tracer)
Coronamoe (corona tired)
Covid
Covidioot
Druktebarometer (barometre showing how busy it is)
Dutjestaks (nap tax)
Hoestschaamte
Knuffelcontact (cuddle contact)
Kuchscherm (coughing screen)
Lockdownfeestje (lockdown party)
Raambezoek (window visit)
Reddingsstrook (emergency lane)
Spookkeuken (ghost kitchen)
Sportbubbel (sports bubble)
Versoepelbrigade (relax brigade)
Vivaldicoalitie (Vivaldi coalition)
Vriendenaandeel (friend’s share)
Zelfquarantaine (self quarantine).
Jason Spinks
The Brussels Times
