2020 with so many firsts has been a tough year. Throughout the world, people have undergone numerous economic, social, and mental changes. Covid-19, however, has been influential in giving both our lives and vocabulary a new form.
Most of us also observed an exponential increase in the use of those terms that are directly linked to the current coronavirus disease when dealing with the ongoing pandemic.
Here’s a list of five terms that largely describe the era of Covid-19 and were presented to us during this period:
Pandemic
The popular American dictionary, Merriam-Webster, has proclaimed ‘Pandemic’ the word of the year 2020. In Latin and Greek, the word “pandemic” has roots, meaning “common, public.” Further breaking down, “pan” means “all” and “demos” means “people.” Pandemic is used to describe the disease that affects a very large population, spreading from a nation to many countries across the globe.
The word became popular this year after the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the coronavirus outbreak on March 11 as a pandemic.
Lockdown
The most used term for 2020 is “lockdown”. It is described by the Collins Dictionary as’ the enforcement of strict restrictions on travel, social interaction, and access to public spaces.’ In order to prevent the spread of infection from one individual to another and also to protect ourselves and others, it describes the restrictions imposed in countries around the globe.
Except for purchasing essentials, people were not allowed to step out of the house during the pandemic.
Quarantine
“As one of the most searched words in their dictionary, the Cambridge Dictionary announced its “Word of the Year” as “quarantine. This term has a similar meaning to isolation and has been generally used all year round.
But quarantine, unlike isolation, means separating and limiting the movements of individuals exposed to the infectious disease to see if they get sick.
Social Distance
“Since the early 19th century, social distance has been in use, initially with the meaning of “the degree of acceptance or rejection of social contact between people and, in particular, those belonging to different social classes.
In modern times the phrase “avoiding close contact with other people during the outbreak of a contagious disease in order to minimize exposure and decrease the transmission of infection” is more commonly used.
WFH (Work From Home)
Instead of at an office, WFH or “Work From Home” describes work being performed remotely. Due to the advent of the Covid-19, this idea was popularized and was yet another step embraced by a majority of the organizations because of the ongoing pandemic so that their workers would remain indoors and operate in their homes ‘healthy climate. The new standard of the present world is assumed to be WFH.
Some of the other buzz words of 2020 are asymptomatic, social distancing, sanitizer, containment zone, PPE.