‘Covidiot’, ‘dalgona’ among newwords Bengaluru learnt this year

Two dictionaries — Dictionary.com and Merriam-Webster — have chosen ‘pandemic’ as their ‘word of the year’.

. Hardly surprising, since the word has dominated conversations across platforms since March.

. The Oxford English Dictionary, on the other hand, put out a list of ‘Words of an Unprecedented Year’ to reflect its “ethos, mood, or preoccupations”.

. Words such as ‘Covid-19’, ‘WFH’, ‘lockdown’ have made it to the list. ‘Karen’, ‘bushfires’, ‘furlough’, ‘Black Lives Matter’ and ‘moonshot’ also featured on the list.

. Anugraha Jose, assistant professor, Indian Institute of Psychology & Research, Bengaluru, says the year is going to be known as ‘corona year’ forever.

. As an educator, she saw students and teachers get familiar with words like ‘login’, ‘logout’, ‘spotlight’ and ‘online classes.’

. Etienne Rassendren, retired associate professor of English at St Joseph’s College, says the language of the future will inevitably be shaped by our experience of this year.

. Metrolife spoke to people in Bengaluru, and asked which new words entered their vocabulary. Here are some they listed:

. Covidiot

. Someone who ignores public health guidelines.

. Usage: My neighbour is a covidiot; she keeps stepping out without a mask.

. Quaranteam

. A group that either quarantines together or forms a close-knit social circle.

. Usage: My quaranteam was my best friend, my roommate, and her siblings.

. Quarantini

. An alcoholic beverage usually made from whatever ingredients are available at home.

. Usage: My signature quarantini was rum, cranberry juice and tonic water.

. Dalgona

. A popular trend during the lockdown was making this milky coffee. ‘Dalgona’ in Korean means ‘honeycomb toffee’; it is made by whipping instant coffee, sugar, and hot water.

. Usage: I am ashamed to say I fell into the Instagram trap and made dalgona coffee. I hated it.

. Doomscrolling

. The tendency to scroll through social media and news apps for updates about a catastrophe.

. Usage: I fall into morbid rabbit holes, thanks to doomscrolling every night.

. Frontliners

. Workers who provide an essential service and can’t work from home.

. Usage: We can never thank frontliners enough for keeping us safe during the lockdown.

. Infodemic

. A portmanteau of ‘information’ and ‘epidemic’ that refers to a rapid spread of both accurate and inaccurate information about something.

. Usage: The discovery of Covid-19 almost immediately led to an infodemic on social media.

. Lockdown

. A state of isolation or restricted access put in place as a security measure.

. Usage: PM Narendra Modi announced a nationwide lockdown on March 22.

. Mask-shaming

. One covering the face shames those wearing a mask.

. Usage: I feel the itch to mask-shame a few covidiots whenever I step out.

. Patient zero

. The first carrier of a communicable disease in an outbreak.

. Usage: India’s patient zero was a student who returned to Kerala from the Wuhan Institute of Medical Sciences.

. PPE

. Acronym for Personal Protective Equipment. It is used to protect the wearer against infection.

. Usage: Healthcare and other frontline workers struggled as PPE kits were in short supply during the lockdown.

. Second wave

. A rise in infections following an initial decline.

. Usage: Everyone is wondering whether the vaccine will come before the second wave.

. Social distancing

. Keeping a safe distance of at least six feet between yourself and others not living in the same household.

. Usage: With restaurants and pubs opening, social distancing has become a thing of the past.

. New normal

. The state to which society settles following a crisis.

. Usage: If one more person tells me that not having holidays is the new normal, I’m going to lose it.

. WFH

. Acronym for work from home.

. Usage: With WFH, my dream of wearing pyjamas and staying in bed all day has finally come true.

. Workcation

. A working vacation, where people combine work and vacation.

. Usage: After the lockdown, I booked myself into a resort outside Bengaluru for a workcation.

. Zoom fatigue

. Exhaustion caused by having to be present on video-conferencing apps all the time.

. Usage: I don’t know what hurts more---my back, my eyes, or my cheeks from having to smile all the time. Must be the Zoom fatigue.

. Zoombombing

. Unwanted, intrusive Internet trolls on a conference call.

. Usage: I was thoroughly enjoying a standup show, but the experience was ruined thanks to a jerk who Zoombombed the session.

‘Covidiot’, ‘dalgona’ among newwords Bengaluru learnt this year

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