New Delhi: The term ‘COVID’ – the commonly used shorthand for Covid-19 or Coronavirus disease caused by the SARS CoV-2 virus – is the top word of 2020, finds Global Language Monitor (GLM).
In its mid-year update, the data research company that documents, analyzes, and tracks trends in language usage worldwide, has announced that Covid-19 is ranked on the second spot. The top ten words of the year for 2020 include COVID, Covid-19, Coronavirus, Corona, Face mask, Progress, Truth, Social Distancing, Trade War, and Sustainability.
“It’s no surprise that ‘COVID’ has risen to the top of the rankings. ‘COVID’ has received the highest number of citations ever recorded in our global survey. In fact, ‘COVID’ has outranked all previous Words of the Year in the 21st century by a factor of 100, or more,” said Paul JJ Payack, President and Chief Word Analyst of GLM.
Other top words or phrases include ‘Flatten the Curve’ (the ability to manage the number of cases so as to not overwhelm the hospital system during a pandemic), Lockdown (restricting movement outside homes for locales or geographic districts), Identity Politics (politics based on certain elements of one’s makeup, such as skin colour or ethnic background, or gender).
Progressives, Zoom Meeting, Quarantine, Migrants, Donald Trump, Symptoms and Outbreak were other top words in the list.
Global Language Monitor had begun recording the top words of the year in 2000 to document the history of the 21st Century through the English language.