What that semi-Teutonic headline describes, in essence, is that the German language lexicon, Duden -- roughly the equivalent of the Oxford English Dictionary for the German language -- has welcomed the Anglicism "shitstorm" into its pages, a little over a year after a group of German language experts declared the term to be "the top English contribution to the German language [ http://www.thelocal.de/society/20120213-40703.html ]" of 2011:
The "Anglicism of the Year" jury defined Shitstorm as a public outcry, primarily on the internet, in which arguments mix with threats and insults to reach a critical mass, forcing a reaction.
"This new kind of protest is clearly different in kind and degree from what could be expected in the past in response to a statement or action," said jury member Michael Mann, who runs a language website called Lexikographieblog.
The jury said in a statement ... "Shitstorm fills a gap in the German vocabulary that has become apparent through changes in the culture of public debate."
As the British tabloid Metro reports [ http://metro.co.uk/2013/07/03/shitstorm-enters-german-dictionary-after-becoming-popular-during-eurozone-crisis-3867037/ ] this week, the Germans have, very poetically, opted to restrict the definition of shitstorm to something modern and metaphorical: "In German [shitstorm] has a slightly different meaning and has come to define a controversy on the internet rather than the general calamity it is in English." When referring to the "general calamity" that is a literal storm of actual shit, Germans will probably just continue to use "Ein buchstäblicher Scheißesturm."
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