In normal times Oxford Languages, publishers of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), nominate a single Word Of The Year. These times being far from normal, they have reacted in kind.
Does that mean they can’t choose a winner?
Essentially, yes, though winner isn’t quite le mot juste. The Word Of The Year is meant to denote a new addition to the lexicon which best sums up the zeitgeist but instead of a single word Oxford Languages have chosen a range of words to represent 2020. In a report titled Words Of An Unprecedented Year, they write: “The English language, like all of us, has had to adapt rapidly and repeatedly this year. 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.”
It almost sounds exciting ...
It is, at least if you’re a word nerd. The report continues: “In almost real-time, lexicographers were able to monitor and analyse seismic shifts in language data and precipitous frequency rises in new coinages”. One of the most precipitous of these rises in frequency involved the word ‘pandemic’, which has seen a rise in usage of some 57,000 per cent.
So what are the Words Of The Year?
They are several and, unsurprisingly, most of them do relate to the ongoing pandemic. Examples include ‘lockdown’, ‘superspreader’, ‘furlough’ and ‘circuit-breaker’. Other new words identified include ‘doomscrolling’ (the act of scrolling relentlessly through bad news about the pandemic) and ‘Covidiot’ (a person who flouts lockdown rules, for example to go on holiday).
Which terms have been Word Of The Year previously?
Last year it was ‘climate emergency’ – actually two words – and in 2016, the year of Donald Trump’s election to the White House, it was ‘post-truth’. But although committing to tap into the zeitgeist, Oxford Language have thrown out the occasional curveball. In 2012 they awarded the Word Of The Year accolade to ‘omnishambles’, a word invented by the writers of political satire The Thick Of It, and in 2004 to ‘chav’, a controversial word used to describe working class people. In 2015 it wasn’t a word at all but an emoji – the one with the smiling face shedding tears of laughter.
Are there regional variations?
There are, as English is a widely spoken language open to all manner of local and cultural influences. For instance the Australians, with their love of shortening any word to its bare minimum of syllables, have decided that ‘iso’ (an abbreviation for ‘isolation’) is their word of the year.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here