Oxford dictionary revised to record linguistic impact of Covid-19
(The Guardian Books News)

OED lexicographers report seeing huge rise in `a very short period of time´ of many coronavirus-related terms including self-isolation and WFHWith terms such as WFH, social distancing and self-isolation now in common parlance, the Oxford English Dictionary has made an extraordinary update to include Covid-19 and words related to the pandemic in its definitive record of the English language.The dictionary´s executive editor Bernadette Paton said that it was `a rare experience for lexicographers to observe an exponential rise in usage of a single word in a very short period of time, and for that word to come overwhelmingly to dominate global discourse, even to the exclusion of most other topics`. Covid-19 has done that, and has thus been added as a new item in the OED, where it is described as `an acute respiratory illness in humans caused by a coronavirus, which is capable of producing severe symptoms and death, esp. in the elderly and others with underlying health conditions`. Continue reading...