Bundespräsidentenstichwahlwiederholungsverschiebung: Austria’s whopping word of the year that’s 51 letters long

THE German language is notorious for its lengthy constructions, but Austria’s word of the year for 2016 really goes the distance.

At a magnificent 51 characters, it is ‘Bundespräsidentenstichwahlwiederholungsverschiebung’. Or, in English, ‘postponement of the repeat of the runoff of the presidential election’. The tongue-twister marks the seven-month period it took to elect Austria’s president. A first round in April was followed by a May runoff between the two most popular candidates. This was annulled because of irregularities then a new date in October was postponed because of faulty absentee ballots.

Independent green candidate Alexander Van der Bellen finally beat his far right opponent Norbert Hofer last Sunday.

The word came top in a poll of 10,000 people conducted by the Austrian German unit at Graz University in collaboration with the Austrian Press Agency.

‘The word’s meaning and length are a symbol and ironic commentary on this year’s political events,’ the jury said in a statement.

The term also reflects the language’s unique ability to ‘add nouns at will and create new words with unlimited lengths’.

‘Oexit’ – invented for discussions about an Austrian exit from the European Union – was voted ugliest word of the year. ‘Its careless usage by the media falsely reinforces and to a certain extent tries to summon the departure from the EU, when in fact a majority of Austrians are not in favour,’ the jury said.

Oxford Dictionaries revealed last month that ‘post-truth’ was its international word of the year beating off ‘alt-right’ and ‘Brexiteer’. It said the words reflected a year defined by emotive political discourse. Post-truth increased in usage by 2,000 per cent on 2015.