The verb “booster” has been voted Anglicism of the Year 2021. The jury, headed by linguist Prof. Anatol Stefanowitsch from Freie Universität Berlin, praised the speed with which it filled a gap in the vocabulary and the ease with which the word found its place in the German grammatical system.
In German, the verb “booster” refers to the refreshing of a corona vaccination. The Anglicism of the Year initiative announced on Tuesday that it differs in several respects from the German wording “give/receive a booster vaccination”. “Boosters” refer specifically to vaccinations against the corona virus and enable concise yet clear communication during the pandemic. The word also has “an optimistic and dynamic connotation” that the term “refresher” simply cannot match.
The Corona crisis had already shaped the “Anglicism of the Year” choice for 2020. At that time, the choice fell on the term “lockdown”, which had become common for closures. Since 2010, Stefanowitsch’s language initiative has honored what it considers to be the “positive contribution of English to the development of German vocabulary”.