2020 is so wild that Oxford English Dictionary couldn’t come up with one ‘word of the year’
How do you describe a year with so many unprecedented events in one single word?
Well, you just don’t.
That was the conclusion that Oxford Languages made as it tried to name its traditional word of the year for 2020, leading the dictionary publisher to make a list instead.
“The English language, like all of us, has had to adapt rapidly and repeatedly this year,” Oxford Languages said in a report published Sunday. “Given the phenomenal breadth of language change and development during 2020, Oxford Languages concluded that this is a year which cannot be neatly accommodated in one single word.”
The publisher behind the popular Oxford English Dictionary decided to highlight how quickly the language had to adapt in a year marked by a deadly pandemic, social unrest, a historic election and numerous other major events.
The list moves through the year, beginning with “bushfire” in January, when Australia was the site of a catastrophic fire season, as well as “impeachment” and “acquittal” in February, when the world was closely watching President Trump’s impeachment trial.
But none of the words can compare to the impact “coronavirus” had on the English language starting in March. The word quickly became one of the most frequently used nouns in the English language and led to completely new words and abbreviations, such as “COVID,” “COVID-19,” “rona,” “covidiot” and others.
Other words and phrases that saw a spike in use during the early days of the pandemic include “social distancing,” “lockdown,” “quarantine,” “self-isolate,” “hand sanitizer,” “face mask” and “reopening.”
When spring was coming to an end and much of the world was finally getting used to the new reality, the terms that quickly jumped into people’s vocabulary had to do with the racial justice protests sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
“As a result, while it is hardly new, the term Black Lives Matter, and its abbreviation BLM, exploded in usage beginning in June of this year, remaining at elevated levels for the rest of the year,” the Oxford report says.
Other words and phrases that saw increased use over the summer were “defund,” “decolonizing,” “systemic racism,” “take a knee,” “wokeness,” and “allyship.”
The Oxford list also captured several words and phrases that show some of the division and turmoil seen in 2020. They include “counter-protester,” “cancel culture” and even “Karen.” The word “superspreader,” which dates back to the 1970s, became more frequent around October, when a largely maskless event at the White House led to numerous coronavirus infections.
Here are a few more word and phrases, along with definitions, that made Oxford’s 2020 list:
anti-vaxxer: a person who is opposed to vaccination
anthropause: a global slowdown of travel and other human activities
BC: before coronavirus
Blursday: a day of the week that is indistinguishable from any other
doomscrolling: the action of compulsively scrolling through social media or news feeds which relate bad news
infodemic: a proliferation of diverse, often unsubstantiated information relating to a crisis, controversy, or event, which disseminates rapidly and uncontrollably through news, online, and social media, and is regarded as intensifying public speculation or anxiety
moonshot: an extremely ambitious and innovative project
plandemic: a planned pandemic
PPE: personal protective equipment
twindemic: the simultaneous occurrence of two pandemics
wet market: a market for the sale of fresh meat, fish and produce
workation: a working vacation; a holiday during which one also works
Zoombombing: the practice of infiltrating video conference calls on the Zoom application, and posting violent, pornographic or offensive content
