???»?????° ???????° 2014: words of the year 2014
The people have spoken. OK, maybe not all the people, but the few hundred who vote on Russia's ???»?????° ???????° (words of the year) have cast their ballots.
And the winner is: ???€?‹?????°?? (ourcrimea).
???€?‹?? ???°?? (Our Crimea) and ???€?‹?? — ???°??! (Crimea is ours!) are ways of expressing that idea that an area of land belongs to us. But ???€?‹?????°?? — one word, lower case — is a thing, a meme, a mindset — everything connected with what some Russian speakers think was the rightful return of Crimea and what other Russian speakers think was its shameful annexation. Most of the time it is used by the latter folks about the former folks.
???????‚?? ???? ?? ???€?‹?????°?? ?µ???µ?‚ (literally, "Let him go to ourcrimea") could be deciphered as "If he thinks Crimea is so great and we had a right to it, despite the world's denunciation and sanctions — let him go there for his vacation." Unspoken subtext: I'll take Venice — or St. Petersburg.
Sometimes ???€?‹?????°?? is even declined as if it were a masculine noun: ?’?µ?»???????µ ?????±?‹?‚???µ ?? ?€???????????… ???????»?µ ???€?‹?????°???°! (It's a great event for Russians after "ourcrimea"!) Or it can be used to describe someone with Russian imperialist leanings: ???? ???‚?°?» ?????????µ?? ???€?‹?????°??. (He's turned into one of the "Crimea Is Ours" people.)
And there is some lovely Russian wordplay in which the syllables get reversed into ???°?? ???€?‹?? (trouble for us). ???¶?µ ???°?‡?°?»?? ???????????°?‚??, ?‡?‚?? ???µ ???€?‹?????°??, ?° ???°?????€?‹??. (People are starting to get that it's not "Our Crimea" but "Our can of worms.")
Not surprisingly, most of the nominated and winning words of the year were connected with politics in 2014. They are not very cheering, but often very insightful. Take the nomination ?‚???‚?°?»???????? (totalgia), nostalgia for some aspects — sometimes imagined or romanticized, sometimes not — of the totalitarian past. Or ???µ???????µ?€?????·?°?†???? (demodernization), a process in which, in the words of project curator Mikhail Epshtein, "?·?°?…?»?????‹???°?µ?‚???? ????????, ???€???€???±?»?µ???????µ ???µ?‚?€???? ?? ?•???€??????" (the window to Europe cut through by Peter the Great is being slammed shut).
New additions to keep an eye on next year are ???????…?????€?°?‚???? (psychocratia, a political regime that rules by whipping up hysteria) and ?????·???„?°?????·?? (schizofascism, a near-hysterical, purportedly anti-fascist position that conceals mercantile interests and a fascist mentality).
There was also a run on prefixed patriotism. You've heard of ???€?°-???°?‚?€?????‚???·?? (jingoistic patriotism), haven't you? Now there's ?????‹-???°?‚?€?????‚???·?? (alas-patriotism: patriotism mixed with sorrow); ??????-???°?‚?€?????‚???·?? (yup-patriotism, patriotism out of habit); ?±?»?°-?±?»?°-???°?‚?€?????‚???·?? (bla-bla-patriotism, declarative patriotism without substance); ?‡???€-???°?‚?€?????‚???·?? (keep away-patriotism, patriotism mixed with xenophobia); ?†?‹?†-???°?‚?€?????‚???·?? (shut-up-patriotism, patriotism shouted to drown out any opposing views).
And a personal favorite: ?»?µ???????????°?? (a Leninfall, that is, the tearing down of Lenin monuments on a mass scale in Ukraine).
Witty and quite wonderful is ???????»???? (googlik), one mention on the Internet, a kopek in the currency of web fame. Also, amusingly, for web-users is ?????µ?‚???‚?? (to publish something on ???µ?‚?? — Internet) and ?????µ?‚?µ???µ?‚?? (to be obsessed with the Internet). The neologism of the year was another web-based notion, the punning ?±?°?????‹?? ???µ???? — not a day when you go to the ?±?°???? (bath house), but a day when you ban (?±?°?????‚??) everyone you don't like on Facebook.
But it wasn't all politics and Internet. There's a new kind of selfie in town — ?????µ?»?„?? — me and my friends, that is, me and ?????µ-?????µ-?????µ. Now that's a good way to end the year.
Michele A. Berdy, a Moscow-based translator and interpreter, is author of "The Russian Word's Worth" (Glas), a collection of her columns.