Every year, Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper holds a vote for the “most important word of phrase of the year”.  These listings are frequently political in nature, dealing with the “hot topics” of the year.  If you read Italian, here’s their current list to vote from.

Photo: La Repubblica

The word list is as follows, with a short description of each:

La Repubblica’s top 15 words of 2019:

1. allunaggio – moon landing – very topical, and a fun word to say
2. capitana – in reference to the migrant rescue ship Capitana Carola Rackete, who famously had a showdown with “Il Capitano” Matteo Savini over Italy’s closed port policy.
3. dazio – more tariffs!  This has become a topic of conversation over US tariffs imposed on Italian goods.
4. influencer – same as in English – in the sense of social media celebrities
5. infrazione – infringement/infraction – not an uncommon work in Italian newspapers.  This year more to do with EU policies than anything else.
6. minibot – crypto-currency here we come.  Of course, the Italian government has toyed with the idea of going full born into the crypto-currency world.
7. moscopoli – Italy’s own “Russian meddling in elections” scandal
8. quota 100 – the plan to allow Italians to retire as soon as 62 if their age and years of work equal 100 (so a 62 year old could retire after working 38 years).  Otherwise retirement is at 67.
9. reddito di cittadinanza – “citizen’s income” – a new unemployment plan designed to help millions of impoverished Italians.
10. sardina – sardine – referring to anti-hate protesters who packed themselves into city squares “like sardines”
11. gilet giallo – yellow jackets – a translation of the French gilets jaunes, signaling more protests
12. greenager – think Greta Thunberg – Italy is seeing an increase of environmental awareness among its young people
13. scudo penale – “criminal shield” – as is often seen in the US and other countries, those in charge of large companies that pollute, or even rob taxpayers through “legal” means, and are not personally held responsible for their actions.
14. spazzacorrotti – “corruption sweep” or maybe “drain the swamp” as an analogy for Americans.  This new Italian law aimed at cleaning corruption out of politics has been the subject of a lot of bar discussions!
15. sugar tax – a proposed tax on sugary items to promote healthier eating.

I’ll just stay out of the politics this year, and vote for “allunaggio” 🙂