Twitteren is Dutch word of the year

Members of the Onze Taal Dutch language association have voted twitteren (to twitter – or send short text messages via a weblog) as new word of 2009.


Twitteren won with 30% of the votes. Other new words on the list included kopvoddentax (head rag tax – Geert Wilders’ proposed tax on Muslim head scarves) and koninginnedagdrama, a reference to the attack on the royal family during this year’s Queen’s Day celebrations.
Last year the winning word swaffelen (meaning to deliberately tap male genitalia against an object) was chosen by internet vote. However, members of Onze Taal decided this year internet voting gives too much influence to pressure groups.

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