Every year around this time, the dictionaries come out with their \u201cWord of the Year.\u201d I\u2019m always interested to see what word gets the honor every year. I remember a couple of years ago, the Word of the Year wasn\u2019t even a \u201cword.\u201d It was an emoji. That just seemed wrong to me, but then I often don\u2019t agree with the choice(s) for the Word of the Year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This year, for the first time, the Oxford English Dictionary has chosen not to name a word of the year. They stated that 2020 turned out to be a year that cannot be neatly accommodated in one single \u201cword.\u201d This year the Oxford English Dictionary decided to announce its \u201cwords of an \u2018unprecedented\u2019 year.\u201d Last week, the dictionary said that there were just too many words to sum up the events of 2020. It\u2019s kind of ironic that in a year that left us speechless, the Oxford Dictionary couldn\u2019t come up with a Word of the Year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, all is not lost \u2014 on Monday, Merriam-Webster did come up with their word of the year \u2014 \u201cpandemic.\u201d According to the company, the first big spike for people looking up the word \u201cpandemic\u201d happened on February 3 \u2014 the same day that the first COVID-19 patient was released from a Seattle hospital. Searches for the word increased by 1,621% compared to the same time the year before. But the largest spike in searches for the word \u201cpandemic\u201d happened on March 11 when the World Health Organization officially declared \u201cCOVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic.\u201d The increase on that day was 115,806% higher than on the same day in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m not sure that I\u2019d have chosen pandemic for the word of the year, but I guess I have to agree it\u2019s appropriate \u2014 from the Greek roots of the word, pan means \u2018all\u2019 or \u2018every,\u2019 and d\u0113mos means \u2018people.\u2019 It\u2019s literal meaning is \u2018of all the people,\u2019 The related word epidemic comes from roots that mean \u2018on or upon the people.\u2019 The two words are used in ways that overlap, but in general usage a pandemic is an epidemic that has escalated to affect a large area and\/or population. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Word of the Year usually defines an era, or something that a particular year is known or remembered for\u2026. in 2008 \u201cbailout\u201d was the Word of the Year, in 2016, it was \u201csurreal.\u201d\u00a0
So pandemic is probably not a bad choice \u2014 I\u2019m not sure I\u2019d have picked it over something like whew, ugh or Yecch.
\u2014 30 \u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Every year around this time, the dictionaries come out with their \u201cWord of the Year.\u201d I\u2019m always interested to see what word gets the honor every year. I remember a couple of years ago, the Word of the Year wasn\u2019t … Continue reading