Firefighter has been voted the Slovenian word of 2022 in recognition of the role that firefighters played in combating a massive wildfire in the Kras region in the summer.

Firefighter received 1,032 votes from the public to win ahead of freedom, which makes part of the name of the ruling party and which won 772 votes.

Draginja, a Slovenian term for rising prices, won 579 votes to come in third. That word was chosen as the word of the year by the newspaper publisher Delo.

More than 4,000 votes were cast to choose the word of the year as part of a campaign organised by the ZRC Research Centre at the Slovenian Academy of Arts and Sciences which wrapped up on 20 January.

The jury, which comprised members of the Research Centre, the public broadcaster's news portal MMC and the association of the deaf and hard-of-hearing, shortlisted ten words out of 253 suggestions.

Most related to the war, energy crisis and digitalisation. The Delo word of the year was added to the list. The voting was then open to the public.

For the fourth year in a row, a sign language gesture of the year has been chosen as well. The winner was 'Everything is in our hands', named after an exhibition on the history of the Slovenian deaf community.

The runner-up was the gesture for Prime Minister Robert Golob, composed of the letter R and the sign for curly hair.

The word and gesture of 2021 were PCT, the abbreviation for the recovered-vaccinated-tested rule.