The Office québécois de la langue française has published every year since 2019 a list of 12 terms representative of the events and trends of the past year.
In 2024, the list notably includes terms linked to natural, social phenomena and artificial intelligence, such as “multimodal artificial intelligence” and “voice spoofing”. Some are new terms, some are not.
Bissextilien, bissextilienne: Person born on February 29.
Humanitarian drone: Drone intended to facilitate emergency assistance in the event of a disaster or serious crisis affecting a population or a large number of people.
Total eclipse: Eclipse in which no part of the occulted body is visible.
Scallotage: Practice which consists of booking a flight whose stopover constitutes the real desired destination and getting off there without the knowledge of the air carrier.
Multimodal artificial intelligence: Artificial intelligence capable of processing, combining and analyzing several types of data at the same time, in order to more accurately reproduce human cognition and generate analyzes and more nuanced and contextualized responses.
Collective bargaining: All discussions between the employer and the union representing the staff with a view to reaching an agreement relating to working conditions which will materialize in the form of a collective agreement.
Ceiling the distant: Barrier to upward vertical mobility against which certain groups of individuals come up against in accessing the highest positions in a society or business, despite their skills, and which results from social constraints, stereotypes or systemic discrimination.
Molecular recycling: Chemical recycling which consists of carrying out depolymerization of the plastic, purifying the monomers thus obtained, then assembling them again to create polymers with properties identical to those of the original.
Overtourism: Phenomenon characterized by the excessive and recurring presence of tourists in a given place, which generally leads to a decline in the quality of life of the local population and negative consequences on the environment.
Geomagnetic storm: Significant and abrupt disturbance of the magnetosphere caused by its interaction with intense or fluctuating solar winds, and which is most often linked to a coronal mass ejection during a solar flare.
Accessory dwelling unit: Secondary housing built on a lot already occupied by a main residence.
Voice theft: Fraud which consists of using computer processes to reproduce the voice of a person in order to pass themselves off as them.
Business
