I thought I was winning an easy bet. Guess the word of the year. The one consecrated every year by some international dictionary. The most searched on Google. The most used on social networks. Come on, you know it too: “green pass”.
I thought it was like that all over the world. But then I went to Google Trends, which gives indications on the most searched words on the web and I saw that no: green pass is used only in Italy. So I asked the DataMediaHub analysts to investigate the matter and I discovered that in Spain it is called “pase verde” and it hasn’t been talked about like we do; in France “Certificat Vert”, and it has been talked about but not so much. In the United Kingdom it is called the “green pass” but in September the government chose not to introduce it and therefore little is said about it and associated with “Italy” or “Italy”.
In short, for us. And on social media? Using CrowdTangle to investigate all conversations on Facebook in the past 12 months, it turns out that there are just 211 thousand, that most of them speak badly, as is normal since social networks are more used by those who want to complain about something; but nine out of ten in the world do it in Italian.
In conclusion, the data clearly says that the word of 2021 will be another: also because among those who use it (European countries) it is only us who have called it the “green pass”. In reality, Palazzo Chigi felt a timid resistance: in the acts of government he continued to call him “Green certificate”, but then yesterday a headline appeared on the Prime Minister’s website: “Green Pass, President Draghi signs the Dpcm on guidelines for PA personnel”.
In short, Draghi also capitulated. He who, as soon as he took office, had warned us: “Who knows why we have to use so many English words”. In some cases, I had observed why new words, those related to innovation, are born in English. But what about the “green pass” then? Perhaps the answer is that after all, we like English, it is more immediate, concise and in a certain sense authoritative: “green certificate” are seven syllables; “Green pass” only two. You save five and feel a little more important.
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