Page 10 - Mossley Browser February 2021
P. 10
Lockdown!
Collins Dictionary W ord o f t he Y e ar 2020
‘Lockdown’ has b een announced as the Sussex, H arry and M eghan, from royal
word of the y ear for 2 020 by Collins duties.
Dictionary, d ue to its s harp rise in usage Previous Collins D ictionary w ords of the
during the C ovid pandemic. year have been:
Lexicographers registered more than 2019 Climate s trike
250,000 u ses o f t he word in 2020, up from 2018 Single-use
just 4,000 in 2019. Other p andemic r elated 2017 Fake news
words a nd phrases which m ade t he top t en 2016 Brexit
include ‘ furlough’, ‘ key w orker’, ‘ self- 2015 Binge watch
isolate’, ‘ social distancing’ a s w ell a s - 2014 Photobomb
naturally - ‘ coronavirus’. 2013 Geek
Non v irus words w hich made the t op ten i n The O xford E nglish D ictionary a lso c hoose
2020 include ‘ BLM’ the a bbreviation f or their o wn word of the y ear, o pting f or
Black Lives M atter a nd ‘Megxit’ to describe ‘climate emergency’ in 2019, ‘toxic’ i n
the w ithdrawal o f t he Duke and D uchess of 2018, ‘youthquake’ in 2017 and ‘ post-truth’
in 2016.
