‘Artificial intelligence’, according to linguists, and ‘election’, according to Internet users, have won the competition for the Word of the Year 2023 organised by the Institute of Polish Language at the University of Warsaw.

In English, the term ‘artificial intelligence’ has been around since the 1950s, while in Polish artificial intelligence appeared in the 1980s in Stanisław Lem’s novel Fiasko (Fiasco) and became popular in the press in the 1990s.

‘In Polish, the term evokes a richer connotation than in English, because intelligence itself is in Polish not only the ability to think, but also a human group. Among the most frequent twentieth-century collocations of the noun intelligence are not only the adjectives uncommon, emotional, or just artificial, but also catholic, progressive or metropolitan. This personal meaning of intelligence is disappearing, today artificial intelligence is the most important’, says Professor Marek Łaziński of the University of Warsaw.

The second place was taken by the word ‘election’, and the third ex aequo by the words ‘inflation’ and ‘deputy’. The choice was made by experts – linguists from nine universities: Prof. Marian Bugajski (University of Zielona Góra), Prof. Ewa Kołodziejek (University of Szczecin), Prof. Danuta Krzyżyk (University of Silesia), Prof. Marek Łaziński (University of Warsaw), Prof. Jolanta Panasiuk (Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin), Prof. Renata Przybylska (Jagiellonian University), Prof. Mariusz Rutkowski (University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn), Prof. Barbara Sobczak (Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań), Prof. Rafał Zimny (Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz).

The Word of the Year was also chosen by Internet users. The winner was the word ‘election’. As in previous years, participants could choose a word from a list or submit their own proposal. The list included, among others, kraken, grenade launcher, MP, election, patho-investing and inflation.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński