If you had to describe 2020 in one word … well, that word might not be appropriate to publish.
However, if you’re describing the words of the year, you’d probably have a lengthy list of terms that may not have even been in your vernacular a year ago.
Merriam-Webster chose pandemic as the 2020 Word of the Year. Oxford couldn’t pick just one word and instead wrote a full report on the words that defined 2020, with some related to the pandemic and some related to political and social unrest.
I can’t think of a year in my lifetime that introduced so many new words into our everyday language. In December 2019, if you would have told me that we’d be practicing social distancing for 9 months of the next year, I would have asked you what that means.
For those same 9 months, my kids haven’t gone to school. They done NTI (non-traditional instruction) at home. Zoom became a noun and a verb. How many times did I say “Are you on your Zoom?” or “It’s time for your Zoom!” to someone.
Stay-at-home orders and lockdowns didn’t just enter our vocabulary. They also became a way of life for many.
Before 2020, I didn’t know much about herd immunity or contact tracing, words now discussed daily in COVID-related conversations.
So, while 2020 hasn’t brought us an onslaught of uplifting words, these words certainly define what we experienced this year.
Here’s hoping 2021 ends with a word of the year like resilience or rebound. Because after a year like this one, we need it.