Bathong! SA social media’s word of the year is ... ‘kuningi’

The Pan South African Language Board (Pansalb) on Monday said the South African word of the year for social media is “kuningi”.

Kuningi is an isiZulu word that means “it’s a lot” and is frequently used by social media users to express feeling overwhelmed by too much information or multiple challenges at once.

The word was chosen from a list of other potential candidates including “danko”, “cima”, “ivale mfana”, “bathong” and “ten past four”. 

It emerged as the winner for the inaugural category with a commanding 61% clip count, followed by “bathong” on 27%.

According to Mzansi Taal, “bathong” expresses surprise, disbelief or dismay.

Other words and terms that were submitted and considered include “inflation”, “hita hlula”, “zama zama”, “isigaxa” and “yoh”, among others. 

While these were the social media words of the year, the official word of the year was named by Pansalb as “Russia-Ukraine” on Monday.

This was the most dominant keyword in the media, accounting for 44% of the total clip count and mentions, followed by Brics at 27%.

This word/term was chosen above other contenders including “Brics”, “interest rate” and “geopolitics”.

Pansalb had shortlisted the words based on real language usage.

To qualify for consideration, there must be evidence that the usage of the word or expression has significantly increased across a broad range of media in the past 12 months. 

Pansalb said its media partner Focal Point analysed frequency statistics from October 2022 to September 2023, tracking keywords that were prominently used in credible print, broadcast and online media.

It said the prominence of the Russia-Ukraine war in South African public discourse can be attributed to various factors, including the country’s official stance on the war, the mediation envoy of African leaders led by President Cyril Ramaphosa, its impact on the hosting of the Brics summit and political pressure to arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

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