The Langenscheidt Verlag has just announced the Jugendwort (youth word) of 2024 at the Frankfurt Book Fair: „Aura.“ While the word traditionally refers to a person’s special aura or charisma, it has taken on a humorous twist among teenagers. Having „aura“ essentially means you’re cool or impressive. Conversely, there’s also „Minusaura,“ which denotes the exact opposite and is used to describe blunders. For example, one might say, „I tripped and fell in front of the whole class—Minus 500 Aura.“ You can think of it like a bank account for aura points that you can either gain or lose. Other contenders for the Jugendwort included words like „Schere“ (meaning „my fault“), „yurr“ (which translates to „yes“ or „what’s up“), as well as classics like „yolo“ („you only live once“) and „digga“ (meaning „bro“).