Merriam Webster’s Word of the Year is No Surprise
By Margaret Coleman
By Margaret Coleman
If you could choose one word to describe 2020, what would it be? According to Merriam Webster, it would be pandemic. No surprise, right? Its usage first spiked in January and February, but became a household word in March, when COVID-19 officially became a pandemic. Peter Solowski, one of Merriam Webster’s editors, says that searches for pandemic on March 11 were 115,806% higher than prior years. Crazy! But it wasn’t always used to explain disease. Up until the mid-1600s, the word mainly meant “universal”. However, after the plagues of the Middle Ages, it became more specifically used in medical context, and since then it has been almost solely used in the disease field.
In addition to pandemic, runners up include coronavirus, quarantine, asymptomatic, mamba, kraken, defund, antebellum, icon, schadenfreude, and malarkey. Most of these words were looked up as a result of a specific occasion. For example, mamba was looked up after the death of Kobe Bryant, whose nickname was black mamba. Kraken became popular after Seattle’s new NHL team chose the mythical sea creature as its mascot, and malarkey was boosted by President-Elect Joe Biden’s love of the word. Icon spiked after the deaths of Representative John Lewis and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. As you can see, words chosen are very relevant and current, helping to describe what has been a truly crazy year.
In addition to pandemic, runners up include coronavirus, quarantine, asymptomatic, mamba, kraken, defund, antebellum, icon, schadenfreude, and malarkey. Most of these words were looked up as a result of a specific occasion. For example, mamba was looked up after the death of Kobe Bryant, whose nickname was black mamba. Kraken became popular after Seattle’s new NHL team chose the mythical sea creature as its mascot, and malarkey was boosted by President-Elect Joe Biden’s love of the word. Icon spiked after the deaths of Representative John Lewis and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. As you can see, words chosen are very relevant and current, helping to describe what has been a truly crazy year.