“Often the big news story has a technical word that’s associated with it and, in this case, the word pandemic is not just technical but has become general. By one estimate, use of the word “pandemic” increased by about 57,000 per cent this year. The word means watching Normal People alone in your pyjamas while eating the last of the EconoMart spaghetti hoops. The most interesting contribution to this year’s word of the year debate came, however, from the good people at Oxford Dictionaries. Trust the Australians – always so inventive with the English language – to land the most arresting sideways contribution.

Source: The Irish Times December 05, 2020 04:52 UTC