The language of the Corona Virus

[Taytocrisps]

Anyone else interested in the words and phrases we're using at the moment? Not new words but words that have taken on an added significance and, for me, will always be synonymous with Covid-19.

Lockdown
Social distancing
Cocooning
Pandemic
Epidemiologist

I'm sure there's lots more.

[DennisTMenace]

Comorbidity. Not a word I had even heard of a few months ago, now used in every day conversation.

[puddock]

These 3 blog posts may be of interest: public.oed.com/blog/the-language-of-covid-19/

public.oed.com/blog/corpus-analysis-of-the-language-of-covid-19/

public.oed.com/blog/circuit-breakers-ppes-veronica-buckets-world-englishes-covid-19/

[purpleme12]

Do they really call it cocooning in Ireland?
We should definitely have gone with cocooning or hibernating instead of shielding.

[ErrolTheDragon]

Hibernating wouldn't have suited the weather... and by now it'd have to be estivating.

[purpleme12]

But it just sounds so much nicer

[2old4thissite]

Yes, most of these, but especially 'unprecedented' we used to play 'unprecedented' bingo at the beginning as the politicians and media used it all the time.
Furlough - never heard of that until March (nor how to spell it)
Shielding- this one annoys me as my husband is extremely vulnerable so to me I am 'shielding' him and he is being shielded , but everyone else uses the wrong grammer.
I now get confused when people say 'I'm shielding' when they are ill and I keep wanting to say 'you are not the one doing the shielding, you're the one being shielded grrr

[JoyceTempleSavage]

I hate that there appears to be a verb “to social distance

And no one knows how to use it. Variations of socially distance, social distance and socially distancing. Which bit is the verb seems to fox people. Unsurprisingly

[CarlottaValdez]

Flouting

[Wallywobbles]

Also in France so quarantine was quatorzaine because it lasted 14 days. Work emails used some interesting language like présentiel meaning to be present in person. There were others but can't remember them a couple of months on.

[Wallywobbles]

And distanciel for at a distance.

[weepingwillow22]

Herd immunity

[turquoise50]

What fascinates me is the way these words get adapted into different parts of speech, which isn't necessarily the way you'd expect.

For example, social distancing. That's a straightforward verbal noun phrase (adjective + gerund if you want to get technical). But when used as a verb it doesn't adhere to normal English grammar rules. For a start, 'to distance' by itself doesn't normally mean anything. You can distance YOURSELF FROM something but normally you'd have to actually say that. 'I'm distancing' would normally be meaningless.

Now to add in the 'social' part. Let's suppose for a minute that 'I'm distancing' DID mean something. If you wanted to express 'social', normally you'd make it an adverb: 'I'm distancing socially'. But nobody's saying that! Instead it's 'I'm social distancing' almost as though it's hyphenated.

Why? There's no reason for it and technically it's not grammatically correct. This is how languages evolve, and has always been so, but it's fascinating to see it happening in practice, so fast. Normally a change like that would take centuries!

I also love 'to Zoom' as a verb. I typed 'We're Zooming it next Friday' the other week ['it' in this case being an actual thing which we were reading together over Zoom] and then I just kind of stared at what I'd written. Even more so when I dropped the capital letter the next time I used it that way. Again, brand names evolving into regular nouns/verbs isn't uncommon (its how we got 'hoover') but it's the speed with which it's happened. I'd never seen 'zoom' used that way before writing it myself, but have seen it several times since.

We've started forming novel words at home too. If I tell my DS to 'Corona-wash' his hands, he knows what to do! Also if we're quarantining some post or shopping or something, or coming in from outside and need to wash hands before touching anything, we'll warn each other 'That's (or I'm) a bit Coronoid' [co-RO-noid] or alternatively 'coronified'. Do other families coin words like this? We've always done it!

PPE - honestly I'd only ever heard of that as meaning 'Philosophy, Politics and Economics' - you know, the degree which David Cameron and his cronies did at Oxford! I'm a similar age to him and it was quite a popular degree option when I was a 6th former (not private school).

On a side note, am I the only person who keeps reading 'WFH' as 'WTF'?

[turquoise50]

@Francina670 I knew 'intubated' from hearing it on ER, back in the day. I assumed it was an American word but maybe it's a universal medical term.

[notchickenagain]

Originally from Twitter for anyone who hasn't seen it. Some quite amusing!

Lockdown lingo - are you fully conversant with the new terminology?

Coronacoaster
The ups and downs of your mood during the pandemic. You’re loving lockdown one minute but suddenly weepy with anxiety the next. It truly is “an emotional coronacoaster”.

Quarantinis
Experimental cocktails mixed from whatever random ingredients you have left in the house. The boozy equivalent of a store cupboard supper. Southern Comfort and Ribena quarantini with a glacé cherry garnish, anyone? These are sipped at “locktail hour”, ie. wine o’clock during lockdown, which seems to be creeping earlier with each passing week.

Le Creuset wrist
It’s the new “avocado hand” - an aching arm after taking one’s best saucepan outside to bang during the weekly ‘Clap For Carers.’ It might be heavy but you’re keen to impress the neighbours with your

Coronadose
An overdose of bad news from consuming too much media during a time of crisis. Can result in a panicdemic.

The Elephant in the Zoom
The glaring issue during a videoconferencing call that nobody feels able to mention. E.g. one participant has dramatically put on weight, suddenly sprouted terrible facial hair or has a worryingly messy house visible in the background.

Quentin Quarantino
An attention-seeker using their time in lockdown to make amateur films which they’re convinced are funnier and cleverer than they actually are.

Goutbreak
The sudden fear that you’ve consumed so much wine, cheese, home-made cake and Easter chocolate in lockdown that your ankles are swelling up like a medieval king’s.

Antisocial distancing
Using health precautions as an excuse for snubbing neighbours and generally ignoring people you find irritating.

Coughin’ dodger
Someone so alarmed by an innocuous splutter or throat-clear that they back away in terror.


Covid-10
The 10lbs in weight that we’re all gaining from comfort-eating and comfort-drinking. Also known as “fattening the curve.

[Gncq]

Keeping the r below 1

From the country that can't know the "r" because we don't have mass testing.

[CaptainWentworth]

PPE has always confused me because I did a chemistry degree so we had PPE to protect us in labs, but then I became an accountant so it started to mean property, plant and equipment (a category of fixed assets).

I am so fed up of hearing most of the terminology above as per PPs, but thanks for the thread as it’s certainly interesting to see how language use is changing. I totally agree that language has a massive effect on perceptions.

[CascadingCrochet]

notchickenagain

[CascadingCrochet]

Is there a word for loving being scooped up at home with your nearest and dearest one minute and kids and husband driving around the bend the next?

[lazylinguist]

Social distancing sounds like an oxymoron to me. So counterintuitive I’m amazed it’s the best we could come up with.

Why? 'Social' can just mean 'to do with society'. Not an oxymoron at all.

Agree - and I hate that there appears to be a verb “to social distance”. It’s all kinds of wrong.

Tbf, 'distance' was already a verb (to distance oneself etc), but yes, 'socially distance yourself' sounds better than just 'social distance' used as a verb.

[VaTeLaverLesMains]

Covid is sometimes an adjective now, although it was coined as a noun. e.g. in hospital there are covid and non-covid patients.

It sounds like an adjective, like rabid, rather than a noun, rabies.

Maybe the disease should have been 'covies'. We have quite a few plural sounding viral diseases like mumps, measles, shingles.

[JoyceTempleSavage]

Social distancing sounds like an oxymoron to me. So counterintuitive I’m amazed it’s the best we could come up with

Why? 'Social' can just mean 'to do with society'. Not an oxymoron at all

Because in the context you describe, society refers to society as a whole, rather than one individual avoiding another individual. If you were distancing yourself from society as a whole you would be shielding or isolating

The context it is used in is social as in meeting others. I find the concept of meeting yet distancing an oxymoron.

I find the term social distancing problematical. What we really mean by it is maintaining adequate personal space, not distancing which as a PP noted, should be used with “from” anyway

[Kittywampus]

I'm also interested in this.

I have also noticed a lot of people talking about 'the virus'. It is almost as if they are afraid to say the full name. Like you might avoid saying a swear word.

[CarlottaValdez]

i have also noticed a lot of people talking about 'the virus'

I think this is because people aren’t quite sure what to call it. Corona, Covid, COVID-19?