A living language is not just a language which continues to be spoken or signed, but it is a language which is acquired by children as their first or primary language. As an integral part of culture, language changes as its culture changes. As new innovations—material, social, religious—emerge, language acquires new words for these innovations. Similarly, as parts of culture die off, words and phrases associated with these dead elements disappear or change meanings.
In linguistics, lexicology refers to the study of words, including their changes in meaning through time. Lexicology can also illustrate cultural changes—changes in material items as well as social, economic, and religious changes. Jeffrey Kacirk, in his delightful book The Word Museum: The Most Remarkable English Words Ever Forgotten, writes:
“The English language, as the largest and most dynamic collection of words and phrases every assembled, continues to expand, absorbing hundreds of words annually into its official and unofficial rolls, but not without a simultaneous yet imperceptible sacrifice of terms along the way.”
One example can be seen in the transformation from an agricultural economy to an industrial economy. In agricultural economy, the work schedule is determined by the sun and the seasons. For factory workers, however, the sun and seasons are irrelevant and work schedules are determined by mechanical devices known as clocks. In the early industrial period, however, clocks, and particularly alarm clocks, were rare. Therefore, a new occupation and its accompanying word was created: upknocking. The upknocker went door-to-door waking up workers so that they could get to work on time. As alarm clocks became more common, the occupation and the word became extinct.
The last couple of years have seen some new words and expressions come into American English reflecting some of the changes which have been occurring. In the past year, several new words and phrases have come into common use because of the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting COVID-19.
While the United States is well-known for its poor science education in public schools and its vocal minority that rejects scientific facts that may contradict tightly held religious and political beliefs, the pandemic of 2020 certainly made it clear that there is a divide between people who follow scientific-based recommendations regarding the coronavirus and those who do not. As a consequence, American English acquired a new word: covidiot. A covidiot is someone who ignores COVID-19 prevention advice, such as wearing a mask, social distancing, and avoiding large gatherings.
Among the recommendations regarding COVID-19 is to maintain a physical distance—often given as 6 feet or two meters—between people in social settings. Thus, the phrase social distancing has entered the lexicon as a way of referring to this health advice.
Ignoring basic health guidelines, such as social distancing and wearing masks, covidiots have been holding social events which have helped the coronavirus spread. As a result, a new word for these events has emerged: superspreaders. The superspreaders have included political rallies, church services, birthday parties, weddings, gun shows, and so on.
In addition to participating in and encouraging superspreaders, many covidiots have embraced the notion of herd immunity, or natural herd immunity. Having seemingly terminated their science and mathematics education after the first grade, the covidiots stress that most people recover from COVID-19. While it is true that most people do recover, Steven Albert, Professor and Chair of Behavioral and Community Health, University of of Pittsburgh, reports in The Conversation:
“To get to 60% immunity in the U.S., about 198 million individuals would need to be infected, survive and develop resistance to the coronavirus. The demand on hospital care from infections would be overwhelming.”
Among those who would get infected, it is estimated that about a million would die. This does not include the additional unnecessary deaths because hospitals would be unable to provide adequate care for patients with other kinds of medical emergencies.
Those who have a basic understanding of the science and mathematics involved in a pandemic have stressed the need for reducing the transmission rate. As a result, the phrase flattening the curve has entered the vocabulary of many people. The curve, in this context, is simply the number of people who contract COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, over time. Flattening the curve just means staggering the number of COVID-19 cases over a longer period of time so everyone can have better access to care.
In attempting to flatten the curve, there has been an emphasis on staying home, working from home, and quarantining. Staying home a lot has introduced a couple of new terms into our COVID-19 vocabulary. First, staying at home day after day has resulted in the blurring of days and the term blursday which refers to the inability to determine what day of the week it is. It should be noted, however, that those of us who are retired have been aware of blursday long before COVID-19 became a part of our vocabulary.
Working from home has created some new ideas with regard to work attire. While not a commonly used expression, some people have suggested that with working at home the phrase Covid Tuxedo can be used to describe wearing a grey sweatshirt with grey sweatpants throughout the day.
In addition to working at home, there are a few people who pass the time doomscrolling -- endlessly checking social media and reading lots and lots of bad news (not to be confused with the new term “fake news”).
There are many other words and expressions that have been developed during the pandemic. Feel free to bring them up in the comments.
More about English
Origins of English: Breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper
Origins of English: Eponymous origins
Origins of English: Kibitzing about the whole kit and kaboodle
Origins of English: Kinds of meat
Origins of English: Traveling Words
Origins of English: Walk, run, and other words
Origins of English: Good and Evil
Origins of English: Law and crime words