The renowned award, like all of us, has had to adapt for 2020.
By Natasha Eaton
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) has this year replaced its usual “Word of the Year” with a list.
The “Words of an Unprecedented Year” list reflects the most talked about topics of 2020.
It includes the obvious Coronavirus-related words as well as others that capture this year’s political changes, social movements, technology and remote working.
Casper Grathwohl, President of Oxford Dictionaries, told the BBC: “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.”
OED has chosen words like “covidiot” and “superspreader” to represent the year’s “ethos, mood and preoccupations”.
“Black Lives Matter” and “Take a Knee” also made the shortlist referring to the protests following the death of George Floyd.
Grathwohl continued: “I’ve never witnessed a year in language like the one we’ve just had.
“The Oxford team 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.”
Previous “Word of the Year” examples include: climate-emergency, post-truth and toxic.
In 2015, the “Face with Tears of Joy” emoji was chosen by OED as the first ever emoji Word of the Year.
This year’s report revealed that the use of the word ‘pandemic’ has increased by more than 57% from previous years.
Lexicographers found that “coronavirus” exceeded the most frequently used noun in the English language, “time”, in April.
The report added: “The English language, like all of us, has had to adapt rapidly and repeatedly this year; so we would like to report more expansively on the phenomenal breadth of language change and development during 2020.
“We saw new words emerge and historical words resurface with new significance as the English language developed rapidly to keep pace with the political upheaval and societal tensions that defined the year, as well as the ever-evolving spheres of technology and climate change.”