Words of the year: 2020 leaves dictionaries speechless
2020 leaves dictionaries speechless
Read more
Words of the year: 2020 leaves dictionaries speechless
Lockdown has been named word of the year by Collins Dictionaries.
However, Oxford English Dictionaries says 2020 is ‘a year that has left us speechless’. They found themselves unable to pick just one word as they usually do. Instead they have picked several, based on their analysis of billions of words in newspapers, books, web pages and other written content.
The words chosen for 2020 include Covid-19, WFH, lockdown, circuit-breaker, support bubbles, keyworkers, furlough, Black Lives Matter and bushfires. OED also says that use of the word pandemic increased by an incredible 57,000% in 2020.
Casper Grathwohl, the president of Oxford Dictionaries, said: "I've never witnessed a year in language like the one we've just had. The Oxford team was 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.'
However, Oxford English Dictionaries says 2020 is ‘a year that has left us speechless’. They found themselves unable to pick just one word as they usually do. Instead they have picked several, based on their analysis of billions of words in newspapers, books, web pages and other written content.
The words chosen for 2020 include Covid-19, WFH, lockdown, circuit-breaker, support bubbles, keyworkers, furlough, Black Lives Matter and bushfires. OED also says that use of the word pandemic increased by an incredible 57,000% in 2020.
Casper Grathwohl, the president of Oxford Dictionaries, said: "I've never witnessed a year in language like the one we've just had. The Oxford team was 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.'