A word that strikes fear in the hearts of many Filipinos — even the law-abiding ones — was just hailed as this year’s word of the year.
The word tokhang was chosen today as 2018’s Filipino word of the year at Sawikaan 2018: Pambansang Kumperensiya sa Salita ng Taon (Language 2018: National Conference for the Word of the Year) held at the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman in Quezon City.
The word was nominated by a certain Mark Angeles, according to Rappler.
“Tokhang” refers to the police’s anti-drug operations that literally means to “knock and plead.”
While its original meaning denotes a peaceful operation, it has evolved into a violent one because of the thousands of deaths the narcotics crackdown has caused.
Radyo Inquirer reported that the second place winner is the phrase “fake news”, while the word “dengvaxia” is at third place.
Dengvaxia refers to the anti-dengue vaccine accused by the government of causing the deaths of children.
Winners in previous years were words such as “canvass” (2004), “huweteng” (2005), “lobat” (2006), “miskol” (2007), “jejemon” (2010), and “wangwang” (2012).
The Sawikaan is organized by the Filipinas Institute of Translation, UP Diliman, and the Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino (Commission of the Filipino Language).
