The word of the year painfully describes exactly what 2020 is all about



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Year after year, the British Collins Dictionary proclaims the word of the year, which, unsurprisingly, is linked to this year’s coronavirus epidemic, and its meaning needs little explanation for anyone: the word of the year in 2020 was blocking.

The Collins Dictionary defines closure as “tightening the rules for travel, social contact and access to community spaces,” and the use of the term in an understandable way has exploded this year. The Collins Corpus of 4.5 billion words in English, which summarizes the words spoken on websites, books, newspapers, radio, television, and private conversations that year, shows a 6,000% increase in the use of the word closure: in 2019, approximately four thousand the word was spoken many times, while in 2020 more than a quarter of a million times, writes The Guardian.

Language reflects the world around us, and 2020 was dominated by the pandemic. We chose “closure” as the word of the year because it sums up the experience shared by billions of people who have tightened their daily rules to keep the virus under control. The closings had an impact on how we work, how we learn, how we shop, and how we connect with each other. Now that more countries are beginning their second shutdown, that word is not something we should celebrate, but it is definitely something that sums up the year in much of the world.

– declared the decision Helen Newstead language consultant.

Several other words related to the epidemic were in competition, such as “coronavirus”, “social distancing”, “voluntary isolation” and “license” were also in the top 10, but there was a significant increase in the number of key workers. ”.

In addition to terms related to the epidemic, the BLM, or Black Lives Matter, was also shortlisted with a 581% increase over last year, but Megxit, which summarizes the departure of the British princely couple, was a video of El term “mukbang” as well as the eloquent TikToker. In 2019, in Collins, “climate strike” was the av word, in 2018, “throwaway,” in 2017, “fake news,” and in 2016, “Brexit.”

Featured Image: JOEL SAGET / AFP



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