2020 has been too overwhelming for the Oxford English Dictionary, which is why there won’t be a “word of the year”.
This is the first time that the dictionary has decided not to pick a word, saying that the events of 2020 are too many to be summed up in a word.
The OED released a report “Words of an Unprecedented Year,” stating that with language evolving rapidly and repeatedly, “it quickly became apparent that 2020 is not a year that could neatly be accommodated in one single ‘word of the year.”
“Though what was genuinely unprecedented this year was the hyper-speed at which the English-speaking world amassed a new collective vocabulary relating to the coronavirus, and how quickly it became, in many instances, a core part of the language,” the report reads.
The word” bushfire” was repeatedly used in January 2020 when Australian bushfires were burning uncontrolled.
February saw an increase in usage of “acquittal” when US President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial ended.
By March, “Coronavirus” became one of the most frequently used nouns. The usage of “lockdown”, “bubbles”, “face masks” and “key workers” increased.
The word “pandemic” gained 57,000% usage increase, while “remote” and “remotely” saw a 300% surge.
In June, use of the phrase “Black Lives Matter” exploded, followed by “cancel culture”.
“Mail-in” and “Belarusian” became the words for August 2020. “Moonshot”, the name the UK government gave to its mass coronavirus testing program, was flagged as the word for September, while “superspreader” gained usage increase in
October, after numerous cases of covid19 were reported at the White House. The use of “conspiracy theory” almost doubled between October 2019 and October 2020.
Earlier this month. Collins dictionary announced “lockdown” as the word of the year.
Previously, the Oxford English Dictionary named “climate emergency” as word of the year in 2019, and “toxic” in 2018.