The autumnal surge in COVID-19 cases in parts of Europe has led to renewed shutdown measures in England, France and Germany, while Italy and Spain have brought back curfews and other restrictions that fall short of lockdowns per se. economy is recovering, about 10 million of the 22 million jobs that were lost early in the pandemic still haven’t been recovered, and many businesses, particularly in the restaurant, retail and service industry, have closed for good. In the U.S., the temporary closures of nonessential businesses and services in the spring to contain the virus saw tens of millions of Americans lose their jobs. Indeed, these measures to slow the spread of COVID-19, which has infected almost 63 million and counting across the globe and killed at least 1.46 million, have impacted just about every aspect of life this year. “‘ is a unifying experience for billions of people across the world, who have had, collectively, to play their part in combating the spread of COVID-19.’ ” What’s more, Collins registered more than a quarter of a million usages of “lockdown” in 2020, compared with just 4,000 last year. Its dictionary entry defines the noun as “the imposition of stringent restrictions on travel, social interaction and access to public spaces.”Īnd while several other pandemic-related terms made the word-of-the-year shortlist, Collins lexicographers explained in a blog post that “lockdown” took the top spot because “it is a unifying experience for billions of people across the world, who have had, collectively, to play their part in combating the spread of COVID-19.” Collins defined the term as “the containment measure implemented by governments around the world to mitigate the spread of COVID-19” in a recent blog post. Oxford flagged words and phrases related to COVID-19, such as “shelter-in-place,” “bubbles” or “pods,” as well as “face masks” and “essential workers.”Īnd “lockdown” has been a popular word across the board.
“It quickly became apparent that 2020 is not a year that could neatly be accommodated in one single ‘word of the year.’ ” At Oxford Languages, we think there are too many,” Oxford University Press wrote in a press release last week, explaining how an unprecedented year caused it to break from tradition and highlight several words instead of just one. “Some might say there are no words to sum up the events of 2020. What’s more, Collins Dictionary recently bestowed its word-of-the-year title on “lockdown,” while Oxford Dictionaries highlighted several terms related to COVID-19, including “pandemic” and “lockdown,” among the key words of 2020. Merriam-Webster defines “pandemic” as “an outbreak of a disease that occurs over a wide geographic area (such as multiple countries or continents) and typically affects a significant proportion of the population.”