Germany’s summer was extremely hot in 2018, but the term “Heisszeit,” or warm age, also reflects climate change as a whole. “Funklochrepublik” and “Ankerzentren” were other favorites this year.
“Heisszeit,” literally “hot time,” is the German Word of the Year 2018, the Association for the German Language announced on Friday. The German expression for “warm age,” as opposed to the ice age, which is “Eiszeit” in German, was chosen by the Association for the German Language not only to reflect an extremely hot summer, but also “the most serious global phenomena of the early 21st century, climate change,” the association said. The jury added that they picked the expression because it offered an interesting play on words.
However, within minutes of the announcement, several German Twitter users noted that it was also the first time they were actually hearing the word.
