Word of the Year: Pandemic

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

I subscribe to two dictionary sites on the internet for their "word of the day" services.  Every morning MerriamWebster.com and Dictionary.com have a new word of the day waiting in my inbox, services that help to expand and strengthen my aging vocabulary.   In addition to "words of the day," both sites also cough up a "word of the year."  This year both organizations, for the first time ever, have chosen the same word as their "word of the year," and, not surprisingly, that word is "pandemic."

"Pandemic" is a word that was not used much in everyday conversation until this year, and now it is a word that everyone understands and uses frequently - and correctly.  Perhaps the last time that an unconventional word had that much of an impact on the English language would have been back in 1999 when everyone was talking about the upcoming new "millennium."

Below are the "words of the year" for the past decade.  The first listed for each year is the Merriam-Webster word, and the second is the Dictionary.com word:

2010    (austerity)                      (change)

2011    (pragmatic)                    (tergiversate)

2012    (socialism/capitalism)    (bluster)

2013    (science)                         (privacy)

2014    (culture)                          (exposure)

2015    (-ism)                              (identity)

2016    (surreal)                          (xenophobia)

2017    (feminism)                      (complicit)

2018    (justice)                           (misinformation)

2019    (they)                               (existential)

Dictionary.com also has a "word of the month" feature, and the words that it selected for 2020 serve as sort of a historical outline for this memorable year.  As you read through them, remember that the pandemic did not become common knowledge until late February and early March, and that during the first two months of the year the nation was still coming down from the Donald Trump impeachment trial in the Senate.  

Here are the Dictionary.com words of the month for 2020:

January:      pettifogging 

February:    acquit

March:        quarantine

April:          social distancing

May:            conspiracy theory

June:            defund

July:             Karen

August:        doomscrolling

September:  absentee vote

October:      superspreader

November:  unprecedented

December:  People's Choice

Those words help to illuminate the year that we have just endured, but the overarching word that describes the year 2020 is "pandemic."  It spread across borders and social classes with as much ease as the coronavirus itself.  Not everyone knew what a pandemic was when the year began, but by the time the year ended most did know the word because it had reached out and touched their lives.  

"Millennium" may slip back on the shelf of general disuse for another thousand years, but "pandemic" is a word that seems destined to be with us for a long time to come.