After Angela Merkel used it to describe the eurozone crisis, the word 'shitstorm' has now made it officially into German dictionaries. Duden, the German standard lexicon and the nation's equivalent of the Oxford English Dictionary, has now recognized the word.In German it has a slightly different meaning and has come to signify a controversy on the internet rather than the general calamity it represents in English.
Its stamp of approval comes after 'shitstorm' was voted Anglicism of the Year in an annual contest at the University of Hamburg. The jury defined it as 'a public outcry, primarily on the internet, in which arguments mix with threats and insults to reach a critical mass, forcing a reaction.'
The jury said in a statement after the word entered the dictionary: 'Shitstorm fills a gap in the German vocabulary that has become apparent through changes in the culture of public debate.'