Hugot, tukod or fotobam? Search on for Filipino Word of the Year

Are you a “millennial”? Do you want to go “viral”? Or do want your “hugot” to be noticed?

These three popular words are among ten commonly used words that will compete in the search for Filipino word of the year.

The seven other words are “netizen,” “bully,” “foundling,” “lumad,” “meme,” “fotobam (photobomb)” and “tukod.”

The word most prevalent in Filipino discourse will be proclaimed as the “Salita ng Taong 2016” at the Pambansang Kumperensiya sa Wika, an annual conference to be held this month.

The conference is organized by the Filipinas Institute of Translation Inc. (FIT) in cooperation with the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF), National Commission for Culture and the Arts and the University of the Philippines College

of Education.

At the national conference on language, experts from academe, media and other intellectual sectors will present their studies about the history and significance of the 10 words.

Michael Corroza, professor of literature and officer-in-charge of FIT, said yesterday the annual search aims to discover what made the words prevail in Filipino discourse.

“These words may be old ones which have been given new life and meaning for contemporary experience today,” he added.

The definitions of the 10 popular words are:

hugot – originally meaning “to pull out,” the word has been used by people wanting to express their feelings wittily;

viral – first defined as something contagious pertaining to a disease, it is currently used to define anything in social media that spread rapidly and became famous or infamous;

tukod – originally meant as an act of supporting the elbow on a flat surface, it is currently used to refer to a traffic jam;

milenyal (millennial) – defined as a generation of people born in the late 1980s and early 2000s and have reached adulthood in the 2000s;

fotobam (photobomb) – an act of spoiling a photograph by a person or object, typically as a prank or a practical joke; netizen – a citizen of the internet; bully – someone who frightens or hurts a weaker person;

foundling – a baby found after being abandoned by parents. This word was gained wide usage at the height of the presidential bid of Sen. Grace Poe, who is a foundling;

lumad – a collective term for indigenous peoples in Mindanao displaced by military operations; and

meme – a witty expression on the internet using a combination of text, photo and video.

Corroza said the word of the year may also come from a play of letters or words which have become common in street talk, or those that have been given an entirely different meaning and have been used for quite some time, up to two years for example.

These words, Corroza said, have in some way or another made an impact on the Filipino psyche, given meaning “based on the history surrounding these words.”

“These words may eventually become part of the Filipino vocabulary,” he added.

Corroza also said that by promoting the Word of the Year, he hopes that the Filipino language will be known as a language that has “the capacity to accept new words.”

“These words will eventually enhance a new kind of technology that will reflect on the daily experience of the Filipino,” he added.

The convention also aims to formalize the use of Filipino in scientific and intellectual disciplines like philosophy, medicine, engineering and law.

“We have to show that language is used not only in common discourse, but can also be used on a higher level of discourse which involves intellect and science,” Corroza said.