My Word! COVID-19 Pandemic Expands Our Vocabulary
The CDC recommends the use of cloth covering for the face to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. These are my homemade face masks. (Photo by Cindy Fazzi, April 4, 2020)
Language is a living thing, constantly changing with the times. The COVID-19 outbreak, which began in late 2019 in China, has added new words and terms to our vocabulary as quickly as the virus is spreading across the world.
We can see signs of the pandemic’s great impact everywhere we look, from the shuttered restaurants to the overflowing hospitals and certainly in English dictionaries. “Because the COVID-19 crisis has developed at such a rapid pace and some of the words and ideas associated with the crisis are themselves new, we have made an unscheduled update for words connected with the disease and responses to it,” according to the editors of Merriam-Webster dictionary.
Here are some of the most important terms related to COVID-19 that were recently added to dictionaries.
Asymptomatic: An infected person who doesn’t display any symptoms.
Community Spread: The spread of an infectious disease to people in a particular location without known contact with infected individuals.
Contact Tracing: Identifying and monitoring of individuals who may have had contact with an infectious person to control the spread of the disease.
Coronavirus: Name for the family of a single-stranded RNA viruses that includes COVID-19. These viruses can infect birds and many mammals, including humans. SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome) are also part of the coronavirus family.
COVID-19: Short for coronavirus disease 2019. A novel infectious disease that causes fever, cough, body aches, and shortness of breath, sometimes progressing to pneumonia and respiratory failure.
Patient Zero: The first person to become infected with a disease during an outbreak.
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE): Clothing and equipment used to protect a person from hazards, such as exposure to infectious diseases.
Self-quarantine (or self-isolation): Voluntary avoidance of contact with other people (by staying at home) for at least two weeks during an outbreak of a contagious disease. The use of the word “self” indicates a voluntary act as opposed to patients who are required to be quarantined.
Shelter in Place: Local governments use the term when they ask residents to remain at home and only leave the house for essential activities (e.g., buying food).
Social Distancing: Avoidance of close contact with other people during an outbreak of a contagious disease in order to minimize the risk of exposure to, or transmission of, the disease.
Super Spreader: A highly contagious person who transmits an infectious disease to a large number of people.
Read more about terms related to COVID-19 on Merriam-Webster’s website.
Read other stories about words:
The Persistent Misuse of “Enormity” & 27 Other Commonly Confused Words