Business_Spotlight_-_Nr.2_2020

WORKING WORLD 2/2020 Business Spotlight 11

WORD

WATCHER

they

(Merriam-Webster’s 2019 Word of the Year)

The humble personal pronoun “they” jumped into the headlines

in 2019 thanks to celebrities such as British singer and songwriter

Sam Smith. Because they are gender nonconforming, these celeb-

rities want other people to use “they” rather than “he” or “she” to

refer to them (see also pp. 10 and 56). This sent people running

to their computers to search for the word “they”. The number of

searches for the word increased 313 per cent in 2019 over the pre-

vious year.

climate emergency

(Oxford Dictionaries’ 2019 Word of the Year)

Oxford chose the term “climate emergency” to reflect the increas-

ing urgency people feel regarding climate change. Since Septem-

ber 2018, its use has increased 10,796 per cent. The UN Secre-

tary- General António Guterres called the climate emergency “the

defining issue of our time”. Some people think the term fails to de-

scribe the climate situation accurately, whereas others believe the

term “emergency” drives people to despair rather than activism.

celebrity [sE(lebrEti]

, Prominente(r)

defining issue: the ~

[di)faInIN (ISu:]

, das (alles) bestimmende

Thema

despair: drive sb. to ~

[dI(speE]

, jmdn. zur Verzweiflung

treiben, verzweifeln lassen

emergency

[i(m§:dZEnsi]

, Notfall, Notstand

gender nonconforming

[)dZendE

)nQnkEn(fO:mIN]

, keinem binären

Geschlecht zugehörig

humble [(hVmb&l]

, bescheiden, einfach

personal pronoun

[)p§:s&nEl (prEUnaUn]

, persönliches Fürwort,

Personalpronomen

previous

[(pri:viEs]

, vorangegangen

To invent you need

a good imagination and

a pile of junk

COMPARISON

Cristiano Ronaldo’s

annual earnings

from sponsored

Instagram posts

Ronaldo’s estimated

annual salary at

Juventus, an Italian

football team

............................................................................................................................................................................................................................

.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................

.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................

.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................

............................................................................................................................................................................................................................

..............................................................................................................................................................................................................................

.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................

.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................

....................................................................................................................................................

..............................................................................................................................................................................................................................

.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................

............................................................................................................................................................................................................................

............................................................................................................................................................................................................................

..............................................................................................................................................................................................................................

.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................

............................................................................................................................................................................................................................

.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................................

............................................................................................................................................................................................................................

....................................................................................................................................................

.........................................................................

€

MILLION

€30.

MILLION

Ronaldo: winning

the internet

annual [(ÄnjuEl]

, jährlich

American inventor

Thomas Edison

(1847–1931)

junk [dZVNk]

, wertloses Zeug, Plunder Sources: Buzz Bingo;

Goal (www.goal.com)