Klimakleber - which refers to climate activists who glue themselves to airport runways - is now so widespread that it has been added to the German dictionary.
ADVERTISEMENTOver the last couple of years, climate activists have protested against the use of fossil fuels by glueing themselves to airport runways.
Germany has been the focus of these demonstrations, with Cologne, Munich and Frankfurt recently targeted.
The acts have become so common that Germans have coined a word in their language to describe this sticky form of protest.
Klimakleber - which translates as ‘climate glue’ - is now so widespread that the Duden, the German equivalent of the Oxford Dictionary, has added it to its updated 29th edition, released on 20 August.
Climate action and environmental consciousness have spawned dozens of creative new terms in European languages. Here are our favourites.
The most creative terms related to climate change
Flygskam: This Swedish word literally means ‘flight shame’ and was popularised by climate activist Greta Thunberg.
It is used by the anti-flying movement to refer to the feeling of being embarrassed or ashamed of travelling by plane because of its negative consequences for the environment.
Smygflyga: The flight shame movement then coined another Swedish term meaning ‘sneak flying’.
This refers to when you travel by plane, but you do it in secret, i.e. you don’t post about it on social media.
Tågskryt: To round it off, the flight shamers also invented the Swedish term ‘train brag’ as a way of encouraging people to travel by train and post about it on social media.
Cli-fi: This English term is short for ‘climate fiction’ and refers to films and books about apocalyptic climate disasters or fictional worlds experiencing climate change.
These would be, for example, the films The Day After Tomorrow and 2012 or the book The Road by Cormac McCarthy.
Solastalgia: This English term describes an emotional or existential distress provoked by climate change.
The word is formed by a combination of the Latin sōlācium (comfort) and the Greek root -algia (pain). It also recalls the word nostalgia, to suggest a sense of yearning for the past.
Gretini: This term is used in Italian to negatively refer to the thousands of young people who support Greta Thunberg and take part in climate demonstrations like Fridays for Future.
ADVERTISEMENTThe suffix -ino is the diminutive form in Italian, so the word literally means ‘little Gretas’.
However, the word sounds very similar to the term ‘cretini’, meaning idiots. As such, ‘Gretini’ is often used in the press and politicians to refer condescendingly to eco-conscious teens.
Depresja klimatyczna: This Polish phrase is similar to the English ‘eco-anxiety’ and literally means ‘climate depression’.
It describes the feeling of being overwhelmed by the constant news of climate disasters and grim environmental statistics.
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