Peeling, cloning, sprouting, dusk: 15 Catalanized words that have shaped the last 40 years

BarcelonaHe Termcat It was founded 40 years ago to normalize Catalan in all spheres of life. "For 40 years, Catalan hadn't been able to be used in professional and educational settings, and the fear that existed was that, once it was no longer prohibited, specialized communication wouldn't have the words to do so," recalls Jordi Bover, director of Termcat. Following the Language Policy Law, the Department of Culture and the IEC launched the terminology center with the help of linguist Teresa Cabré.

For Catalan to be suitable for all uses, words were needed. Since then, Termcat has been responsible for generating specialized terminology, normalizing neologisms and foreign words, and seeking alternatives to loanwords and barbarisms. It often provides "first aid" for the language and acts swiftly to preempt loanwords so that Catalan equivalence would spread. Forty years ago, the threat was Castilianisms; Today, English is the dominant language. "Right now, the problem isn't having the terminology," explains Bover, "but its use in the general language. That's why we must implement language policy actions, such as posters with medical terminology for health centers."

In four decades, Termcat has studied more than 230,000 terms, which can be consulted online and free of charge at Cercaterm and Optimot. The most controversial and complex terms are analyzed by a Supervisory Council, and its decisions are incorporated into the Neoloteca; concepts such as skydiving political, juristocracy either homeless person. Although it is not a normative body, its linguistic resolutions are taken into account by the administration, the media, users and, finally, they are a filter for the Philological Section of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans, which assesses the inclusion in the normative dictionary.

The adaptation of words such as software, offshoring, reality TV and podcast They directly refer to a period. We chose some words that reveal the social changes of the last 40 years to discover how Termcat works.

Peeling

1986

One of the first terms adapted to Catalan by the Supervisory Council of Termcat was an Anglicism from the hairdressing and beauty sector, the peeling, which is synonymous with stripping, but specifically applied to the removal of dead skin cells. Beauty innovation comes directly in English (we see it more pronounced today with the skincare routine and the beauty nails) and in Catalan they simply adapted the spelling to the phonetic. The word hasn't entered the dictionary, where it should be stripped and exfoliated.

Single-parent family

1987

The change in family models and social relationships has been one of the major drivers for the normalization of words. That's why the term was introduced to refer to single-parent families. Eighteen years later, the same-sex family, referring to a homosexual family with children. The word formation is spot on: bun- (only one) and homo- (the same) precede the adjective parental. Termcat clarifies that, if you want to specify that it is a single-parent female family, you should say so, and not say single-parentEtymologically, parental does not mean father but refers to the father and the mother, while marental does not exist (because it is neither a well-formed word nor a necessary neologism, because there are already maternal and maternal) and, also, because single-parent All families in which there is a mother are.

Mousse

1988

Gastronomy is one of the main sources of foreign words, as international cuisine has been gaining popularity. Since food has a very close connection with the culture of origin, linguists strive to ensure that the reference is not lost. Therefore, some loanwords have been adapted without changes: mousse, fondue, pizzaWhen the adaptation is transparent, the choice is to bring the word closer to Catalan: crepe. When the gastronomy is even more exotic than French, things get complicated with alphabets as different as Arabic (falafel) or Japanese (sushi (adapted in 2006).

Desertification

1990

Three decades before the concept climate emergency out trending topic and neologism of the year 2019, words were already needed to explain the effects of human activity on the environment, an area that is experiencing terminological expansion (with words like dana or heat index). At that time, two terms were established: desertification (the natural process of desert formation) and desertification (a process induced by human activity), which sought maximum precision and also had the intention of raising awareness.

Safety cushion

1994

Don't know what it's about?airbag It was introduced in motor vehicles in the 1990s, and since 2006 it has been mandatory to incorporate it at least in the driver's seat, according to a European standard. At that time, instead of the Anglicism, an adaptation was chosen that was very simple in meaning and consistent with other adaptations in the same area, such as seat belt. Now, thirty years later, it is clear that it has not made much of a popular fortune.

Cloning

1997

Dolly the sheep was born on July 5, 1996, and was publicly announced in 1997. It was the first mammal successfully cloned from an adult cell, and newspapers were filled with genetic and biochemical terminology. In Catalan, it was a cloning and not one cloningTermcat had already worked on a terminology dictionary for molecular biology a decade earlier.

Eurozone

1999

The eurozone It was created on January 1, 1999, with the launch of the euro as the official and unitary currency, initially, of twenty countries in the European Union. The banknotes and coins were put into circulation in 2002. In other reference languages, the winning concept was eurozone.

Pescaclics

2017

When digital media and networks definitively became the battleground for news, headlines stopped reporting news, and enigmas became commonplace to grab attention and force the consumer to click. In English, the common term is clickbait, but in Catalan, temptation is called clickfishing, proposed by technology communicator Josep Maria Ganyet, an original term that has gained considerable popularity. Termcat works with specialists in each area.

Brollada

2018

The terminology has also adapted to social trends that take into account inclusivity, diversity, and sexual liberation. In 2018, it was proposed to revise the Terminology of sexuality and eroticism, in which terms such as the appeared sprouted, an original adaptation of thefemale squirting ejaculation either squirting. Instead, the peting as an adaptation of the Anglicism petting (to caress affectionately), because there are no living alternatives according to experts. It was ruled out that it could be called foreplay because this leads one to think that it necessarily ends with intercourse.

Late

2025

The queues outside nightclubs during the day prove that going out in the evening is no longer just for the elderly. late It has spread as a healthier form of leisure. To avoid this Castilianism, Termcat's commitment is to create its own form, such as late, which starts from the root late, which is common in all dialects, and allows it to be conjugated as duskIt is genuine and informal enough, as the record requires.