Unsurprisingly, the Merriam-Webster word of the year is pandemic, a word defining this era, as the dictionary editors put it. It earned this status not only due to an extreme number of lookups, but also based on increasing lookups year after year. There was a peak of interest in it in February 2020, after which there was no decline. By March 11, when the WHO confirmed that COVID-19 was a pandemic, searches had multiplied by over 115,000% compared with March 2019. The Greek origins of the word may be of interest: pan, meaning all, and demic, relating to demos, people. As one would expect, coronavirus was next on the list of Merriam-Webster, having multiplied more than 162,000% in the past year.
The Oxford English Dictionary could not settle on
just one word of the year this time, publishing a report entitled “Words of an
Unprecedented Year”. These include, besides terms such as coronavirus, COVID-19,
lockdown, superspreader and social distancing, entries such
as bushfire (mainly relating to Australia); impeachment and acquittal
(mostly surrounding Donald Trump), and black lives matter, which spiked
after the recent killing of African Americans.
Here are the words of the year of some other dictionaries:
Collins: lockdown
Dictionary.com: pandemic
Cambridge: quarantine, which – according to the
editors – has gained a slightly new sense, synonymous with lockdown.
Let’s hope that, with the vaccine around the corner, the
2021 words of the year will revolve around vaccination, recovery, and brighter
prospects for the world.
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