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With a number of international locations dealing with life in a pandemic, it’s no shock that lexiconographers at two of the world’s main establishments have picked COVID-related phrases to sum up 2020.
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Final week, Britain’s Collins English Dictionary named “lockdown” as its phrase of the 12 months.
In line with Collins, the phrase registered over 1 / 4 of 1,000,000 usages in 2020, in comparison with solely 4,000 the earlier 12 months.
“With many international locations coming into a second lockdown, it’s not a phrase of the 12 months to have fun however it’s, maybe, one which sums up the 12 months for many of the world,” Collins language content material guide Helen Newstead advised The Guardian.
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The Collins shortlist included pandemic-related phrases corresponding to “coronavirus,” “key employee,” “furlough” and “social distancing.”
On Tuesday, the Australian Nationwide Dictionary Centre introduced “iso,” an Aussie abbreviation for “self-isolation,” because the nation’s phrase of the 12 months.
“Our fondness for abbreviating phrases in Australia, and a pure human inclination to make the unknown and scary acquainted, rapidly noticed the descriptive time period ‘self-isolation’ shortened to iso in March this 12 months,” stated Mark Gwynn, the Australian Nationwide Dictionary Centre’s senior researcher.
The phrase is “linguistically productive” when mixed with different phrases corresponding to iso baking and iso lower, Gwynn stated.
The opposite coronavirus-related phrases that made the shortlist have been “bubble” and “covid-normal.”
