Now everyone wants to “gentænke”

What do the Minister of Justice, the car company Jaguar, Prime Minister Lars Løkke and Kevin Magnussen’s racing driver advisor have in common? During 2015, these four were all quoted in the press, applying the concept of rethinking.

Søren Pind, Justice Minister, wants to rethink the effort for young people, Magnussen's adviser wants Magnus to rethink his brand. Løkke wants an expert to rethink foreign policy and finally Jaguar wants to rethink the XF'. From being close to non-existent, the word ‘rethink’ has now fought its way to the headlines in the press, the general vocabulary and furthermore received a place in the official Danish dictionary.

A word in development
“Gentænk” has become a frequently used word in the media and just as often as the word is used today, it was not used last year. It has gone from being used 15 times in the press from 2005-2009 to being a normal term to use, used 1,176 times from then, until today. In the same time period, “gentænke” has been used 9,063 times in articles and letters to the editors.

Let's Rethink
In 2008 the City of Aarhus started the process leading to receiving the title, European Capital of Culture. The process revealed that we face a number of challenges, at different levels. During the preparation process it became clear, we need new solutions to our common challenges - we need to rethink. Therefore, the theme "Let's Rethink" was developed. Rethinking is much more than a theme, it's a way of thinking, it is change, innovation and new progressive ways of acting.

Therefore, the goal was also that “gentænke” would become so widely used that the word would get in the dictionary. This has become reality, since the Danish orthographic dictionary, Retskrivningsordbogen, published by the Danish Language Council, has decided to incorporate the word.

More want to join
Now Ordnet.dk, organised by the Danish Language and Literature Society wants to join:

"Rethink is one of those words that are pretty easy to figure out the meaning, and it may be the reason why it does not exist in our dictionary yet, but it is as much a coincidence that it does not exist, and there is certainly not anything wrong with it,” said Lars Trap –Jensen, the senior editor of Ordnet.dk. He added:

"And now I will also take the opportunity to add “gentænk” to the words that are going to be edited and come into our updated version in November."

With less than 500 days to the opening of the Capital of Culture year, there is no way to avoid the presence of the word “gentænk”.