muotissasanan

Muotissasanan is a Finnish neologism that literally translates to “fashion‑word” or “trendy word.” It refers to a lexical item, phrase, or linguistic trend that becomes temporarily popular in informal speech or media. The concept is analogous to “buzzword” or “fad word” in English. The term gained traction on social media and in contemporary Finnish journalism during the late 2010s when language users began highlighting fleeting lexical phenomena, often humorously, that appear in memes, streaming commentary, and internet forums.

The compound comprises muoti (fashion) and sanan (of the word), suggesting that the word itself is “on the catwalk” of popular culture. Linguists use muotissasanan to study contact phenomena in Finnish-speaking online communities. Examples include satirical neologisms such as “kuduro” (blend of Danish “kød” and Swedish “ro”) coined to describe people who binge watch foreign shows, or “pnselmöntö” (combo of Finnish “pnsel” for paper clip and “mäntö” slang for talk), referring to online meme-sharing. Scholars note that its lifespan is often short, and it may be tied to specific subcultures, influencers, or algorithmic promotion.

In Finnish popular culture, muotissasanan has been discussed in academic articles on sociolinguistics, in mainstream press pieces on “word virtue” and in online lexicon challenges where participants track word migration. The term encapsulates a sociolinguistic phenomenon more than a single word; it serves as a lens for observing the dynamics of language change in the digital age.