Noun describing social distancing is Dutch word of the year

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Anderhalvemetersamenleving, a compound noun describing life under the Dutch government's 1.5-meter social distancing requirement, was the runaway winner of a vote held by the Van Dale dictionary company. In second place with 11% was “fabel­tjes­fuik” a noun which Van Dale defines as the “phenomenon that users of social media who are interested in conspiracies are offered more and more messages about conspiracies due to the operation of social media, which gradually leads them to believe in them.” All the other words in the top 10 were related to the year's defining story — the coronavirus pandemic — and celebrate the Dutch way of creating new words by knitting together existing words to describe a new phenomenon. They included “hoestschaamte,” a word best translated as “coughshame” — the feeling experienced by people who cough in public places during the pandemic — and “lockdownfeestje,” a word describing parties staged and attended by people who don't take seriously a lockdown necessitated by a large-scale virus outbreak.