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Oxford Dictionaries: 2020 has too many words
By Alison Flood in The Guardian| 655 words

"For the first time, the Oxford English Dictionary has chosen not to name a word of the year, describing 2020 as “a year which cannot be neatly accommodated in one single word”.

Instead, from “unmute”to “mail-in”, and from “coronavirus”to “lockdown”, the eminent reference work has announced its “words of an ‘unprecedented’year”.

On Monday, the dictionary said that there were too many words to sum up the events of 2020. Tracking its vast corpus of more than 11bn words found in web-based news, blogs and other text sources, its lexicographers revealed what the dictionary described as “seismic shifts in language data and precipitous frequency rises in new coinage”over the past 12 months.

Coronavirus, one of its words of the year, is a term that dates back to the 1960s, although it was previously mainly used by scientists. By March this year it was one of the most frequently used nouns in the English language. “Covid-19”, first recorded on 11 February in a report by the World Health Organization, quickly overtook coronavirus in frequency of use, noted the dictionary.

One of the year’s most remarkable linguistic developments, according to the OED, has been the extent to which scientific terms have entered general discourse, as we have all become armchair epidemiologists, with most of us now familiar with the term “R number”. “Before 2020 this was a term known mainly to epidemiologists; now non-experts routinely talk about ‘getting the R down’or ‘bringing R below 1’.

Other terms that have become much more common in everyday discourse this year include ‘flatten the curve’and ‘community transmission’,”said the dictionary. Use of the phrase “following the science”, it added, has increased in frequency more than 1,000% compared with 2019.

Other coronavirus-related language cited by the OED includes “pandemic”, which has seen usage increase by more than 57,000% this year, as well as “circuit breaker”, “lockdown”, “shelter-in-place”, “bubbles”, “face masks”and “key workers”.

The revolution in working habits has also affected language, with both “remote”and “remotely”seeing more than 300% growth in use since March. “On mute”and “unmute”have seen 500% rises since March, while the portmanteaus “workation”and “staycation”increased by 500% and 380% respectively. Other news events have also been reflected in language. In the early months of 2020, there were peaks in usage of “impeachment”and “acquittal”, and “mail-in”has seen an increase of 3,000%. Use of “Black Lives Matter”and “BLM”also surged, as did the term “QAnon”, up by 5,716% on last year. The phrase “conspiracy theory”, meanwhile, has almost doubled in usage between October 2019 and October 2020. Use of “Brexit”, however, has dropped by 80% this year. “What words best describe 2020? A strange year? A crazy year? A lost year?

Oxford Languages’monitor corpus of English shows a huge upsurge in usage of each of those phrases compared to 2019,”said the OED in its report. “Though what was genuinely unprecedented this year was the hyper-speed at which the English-speaking world amassed a new collective vocabulary relating to the coronavirus, and how quickly it became, in many instances, a core part of the language.”

Previous choices for word of the year from Oxford have included “climate emergency”and “post truth”. Rival dictionary Collins chose “lockdown”for its word of the year earlier this month. “I’ve never witnessed a year in language like the one we’ve just had,”said Oxford Dictionaries president Casper Grathwohl.

“The team at Oxford were identifying hundreds of significant new words and usages as the year unfolded, dozens of which would have been a slam dunk for word of the year at any other time. It’s both unprecedented and a little ironic –in a year that left us speechless, 2020 has been filled with new words unlike any other.”■Some might say there are no words to sum up the events of 2020. At Oxford University Press, we think there are too many. That’s why this year, the OED Word of the Year looks rather different...

Rather than selecting a single word, Oxford Languages are delighted to announce the 'Words of an Unprecedented Year 2020 Report'. Click here to start reading -> https://oxelt.gl/2UQejKf

#OxfordEnglishDictionary #OEDWordoftheYear ... See MoreSee Less

3 hours ago

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From Lyn Edwards and #MarketingMondayDCIS > "BeeBull Designs is owned by our very own Allison Freeman, DCIS PTSA President. As an artist with many interests, she creates unique Garden Art and Jewelry from upcycled and repurposed materials.

20% of all sales will be donated to the DCIS PTSA Community Fund. Please shop local and support our community this holiday season!"

As Allison says: "BeeBull Designs is unique in every way. We hand make our Garden Art using upcycled dishes & dinnerware. Our Garden Flowers can hang on a garden fence or they can stand on a copper stem. Decorate and enhance your outdoor spaces with bright colors and whimsical designs by planting our Garden Flowers everywhere! We also hand make and decorate our bird baths and bird feeders from upcycled dishes and dinnerware.

Our SteamPunk Jewelry designs combine vintage elements, like pocket watch movements, with modern accents to create custom jewelry that is wearable art.

I draw my inspiration from the Victorian Era and a love of all things floral.

Web: www.beebulldesigns.com
Phone: 303.921.9473"

Please PM Lyn here it if you want to be included in our DCIS business directory, and have a #MarketingMondayDCIS of your own. The idea is to lift each other's businesses up and help support each other through these difficult times.

Note: you are also welcome to nominate a fav biz in our community!

https://lynedwards.wixsite.com/website/business-directory ... See MoreSee Less

22 hours ago

www.beebulldesigns.com

INTERNET/ WIFI > It's easy to get affordable high-speed Internet at home with Internet Essentials. New customers will receive two months of free service in response to the Coronavirus emergency>

You may qualify if you are eligible for public assistance programs such as the National School Lunch Program, Housing Assistance, Medicaid, SNAP, SSI, and others. Learn how to get connected today!

https://www.internetessentials.com/ ... See MoreSee Less

23 hours ago

Internet Essentials from Comcast

www.internetessentials.com

Internet from Comcast brings affordable, high-speed Internet to low-income households so you can have greater access to homework, job opportunities, healthcare and benefits, education resources, and m...

From DCIS > Please see this list of Food Pantries open through the end of next week: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1ZNVF9u4MuQ5MLu3oxAhIBqZWhEI84igOQcKLDy43x3U/htmlview ... See MoreSee Less

3 days ago

Food Pantries Operating Status during COVID-19 - Google Drive

docs.google.com

The official word from the top > "Thank you to the families in our community who have generously donated to the DCIS PTSA community support fund. These funds have provided critical resources for families in dire circumstances, and for our students with severe needs who are in-person to have iPads to better connect them with our larger community. We are so grateful to work with such an action-oriented community.
Be well, Marissa and Dan"
#WeAreDCIS #dcisBakerCommunity

Thanks from the DCIS PTSA too, and you can still donate with a credit card payment at https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=SW5G56P8X64ZG ... See MoreSee Less

3 days ago

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