Smartphone users are often known to irritate passersby as they walk along streets staring at the small screens in front of them, and now German youngsters have given them a name: “smombies”.
A jury named the portmanteau – a combination of “smartphone” and “zombie” – its young people's word of the year in Munich on Friday.
A “smombie” is defined as someone who walks through life with no knowledge of what is going on around them because they are so absorbed in using their smartphone.
Juror Ilknur Braun called it her “absolute favourite word,” adding that it accurately described a very current phenomenon.
The competition is run by Langenscheidt, a publishing house for language resources, to promote its special edition dictionary, “100-percent teenage slang.” – DPA