Phrase to phrase with the climate crisis: A new lexicon for a new world

How does one mourn the dwindling of kalboishakhi, the stormy, sweet-smelling winds that herald the monsoon in West Bengal (kal being Bengali for calamity; boishakh for the month correlating with parts of April and May)?

Or describe the feeling of watching one’s grandchildren play, with a mix of joy and terror that is unique to our times?

The words below represent emotions, concerns and hopes that are distinct to our times, as we fight to find new ways to save our species, and life as we know it on our planet.

They come to us from linguists, philosophers and artists, writers, academics, scientists and science educators. There’s the participatory art project Bureau of Linguistical Reality (BOLR), launched in 2015 and driven by two artists. There’s the Australian philosopher Glenn Albrecht and his 2019 book Earth Emotions: New Words for a New World. And Gesellschaft für Deutsche Sprache (Association for the German Language), a government-funded research organisation dedicated to the cultivation and research of the German language.

Is there a word here that you’d been searching for? Take a look.

Nonnapaura: A mix of longing, affection and anxiety associated with having grandchildren today. It was coined by BOLR, in collaboration with California-based mother of three Linda Ruth Cutts. From the Italian words nonna (grandmother) and paura (fear).

See also: Shadowtime: A feeling of living in two distinctly different temporal scales simultaneously; the sense that our future might be drastically different from our present. Can be exacerbated by attempts to plan for the future, or imagine a child’s future.

From the English shadow and time.

Solastalgia: The pain or distress caused by drastic environmental changes in one’s surroundings. It’s a sense of homesickness, even when one is home, says Albrecht. It’s a condition tied to unwanted, destructive transformation in one’s biophysical environment and the gradual erosion of identity it causes, he notes in his book.

From the Latin solari (alleviation of stress or provision of comfort; also the root of the English word solace) and solus (devastation, deprivation of comfort, abandonment), and the Ancient Greek algia (pain, sorrow, grief).

See also: Mermerosity: A state of being worried, in grief and in mourning over anticipated negative change. This is the anticipation of a possible passing of the familiar and its replacement by something that “does not sit comfortably within one’s sense of place”, says Albrecht.

From the Greek mermeros, relating to being troubled or mourning.

Tagskryt: Literally, train brag. A sense of pride in travelling by train, rather than by air. It was born of the flygskam (Swedish for flight shame) movement. This was a term coined by singer Staffan Lindberg in 2017, and popularised by climate activist Greta Thunberg (both Swedish). Tågskryt is meant to encourage slow, sustainable travel, and encourages people to use the #tagskryt hashtag when they post pictures from their #tagsemester or train holiday.

Gwilt: The guilt one experiences when plants wilt because one didn’t water them enough as a result of concerns over water consumption, especially during a drought. The regret and responsibility is two-fold, and one feels guilt either way, says the definition on the BOLR website.

From the English guilt and wilt.

Vaayucity: The difference in the experience of heavily polluted air in different parts of the world. Air quality statistics, for instance, were almost at par in Delhi and California in September 2020. Delhi’s polluted air was a result of annual but worsening winter smog caused by crop stubble-burning, vehicular emissions and winter fog. California was experiencing dramatically orange skies amid then worst-of-their-kind wildfires.

Vaayucity was a contribution to BOLR by Indian software engineer Shreeyagya Khemka, who grew up in India and lives in California. The air in the US felt apocalyptic, he said, but he had never thought of it like that in Delhi, possibly because of the gradual day-to-day build-up and regular experience of severe pollution.

From the Hindi vaayu (air) and English velocity.

See also: Chuco-hul-sol: The experience of enjoying a marvellous orange sunset while conscious of the fact that it has likely been intensified by air pollution.

From the El Salvadorian Spanish slang chuco meaning dirty; hul, the Korean expression for surprise; and the Spanish sol, for sun. Source: BOLR

Heisszeit: Literally, “hot time” or “warm age”. Its phonetic analogy draws from eiszeit, or Ice Age. The Association for the German Language picked heisszeit as its Word of the Year in 2018, citing its timely reflection of “the most serious global phenomenon of the early 21st century, climate change”.

Teuchnikreis: The cyclical belief that new technology will tackle environmental concerns caused by other, possibly older, technologies, while not acknowledging that the new may cause problems of its own.

The term emerged from a conversation with German professor of critical sustainability Andre Baier during the UN Conference of Parties climate change conference COP21, in Paris, in 2015, and has since been added to the BOLR dictionary. “Teuchnikreis is the false belief that creating technology will get us out of our mess, when in fact, our mess is cultural,” Baier said.

From the German teufelskries or devil’s circle, and technik, for technology.

See also: Prealsthanam: The failure to prioritise Earth and its natural resources and systems because one is blinded by faith in and commitment to economic and political systems. BOLR describes this as the failure to see that “we… can exchange, recreate or do away with the systems we have invented, but that we cannot survive without the earth systems.”

From the Malayalam prasthanam (system) and the English real.

Ihlapnapan: A state of awareness of our oneness and yet confusion over how to proceed, amid conflicting socio-political and cultural mindsets, in a time of chaos.

From the Hindi apnapan (kinship or belonging) and the Yahgan ihlap (at a loss for what to do next), Yahgan is an indigenous language from South America. “After Donald Trump was elected President, this word was created by an art collective which was critical of his policies,” says Alicia Escott of BOLR.

Morbique: The morbid trend of travelling to places that are likely to disappear or be changed forever by oncoming impacts of the climate crisis (certain glaciers; countries such as the Maldives). The term also encompasses the fact that such travel necessarily involves a carbon footprint that affects said place specifically, thereby, in at least a tiny way, contributing to the risk factors it faces.

From the English morbid, and the suffix -que, which turns the word into an adjective. Source: BOLR

Déjà Sisyphé: The recurring exhaustion, frustration and déjà vu one experiences during a conversation in which one must explain and justify climate change, or other proven scientific concepts.

From the French déjà vu (the feeling of already having experienced a situation) and the Greek myth of Sisyphus, cursed to roll a boulder uphill, only to see it roll back down each time he reached the peak. Source: BOLR

Eutierria: A positive feeling of oneness with the planet. “Within a state of eutierria the night is no longer a place of starless black holes, but a good darkness where the senses attune to the harmony of sights, sounds, and smells of our earth and its universe,” writes Albrecht. This is an emotion that encourages people to analyse their relationship with nature, and develop a healthier regard for it, he notes.

From the Greek eu (good) and tierra (earth).

See also: Erusure: The phenomenon of feeling both complicit and powerless. This comes from living within a system that emphasises “individual responsibility” but does not address many of the larger issues, biggest culprits and most systemic flaws, says Escott. The hope is that as this latter approach changes, in a shift motivated by necessity if nothing else, there will be less erusure and more eutierria for the individual.

From the Tamil usure (existence or life) and the English erasure.

Ghomanidad: Rethinking humanity as a force that is regenerative and energising, rather than extractive. This approach pushes humans to stop viewing Earth as a resource, and view it as “a thing to be protected”, says the definition on the BOLR website.

From the Proto-Indo European ghomon (earthling; of the earth) and the Spanish humanidad (humanity).

Jestope: The hope that things will work out, while recognising an extremely difficult circumstance or reality. Jestope originates in the history of the jester as someone who, under the guise of humour, spoke truth to power.

From the English jest, hope and utopian. Source: BOLR