Last week, my 6 year-old niece, Leonie was quite upset by the upsurge in Covid-19 cases where she lives in Ontario, Canada. Her mom, Marion, gave me permission to post her plea here.
If she knew the right word to use, she would refer to those who refuse to “physical distance” (or “social distance” as we say here in the States) as COVIDIOTS. I want to take this opportunity to share a few of the newly-coined words with my readers. Now, please don’t take offense. I do not in any way wish to minimize the horrible circumstance we find ourselves in. But, sometimes a little humor is just the medicine we need.
New words often develop from crises. For instance, we got FUBAR (f-ed up beyond all recognition and SNAFU (situation normal-all f-ed up) from World War II.
The Oxford English Dictionary recently broke its own rule of updating quarterly to add “Covid-19” to its entries. They also added a number of new words and phrases, including “PPE,” infodemic,” “self-isolate,” “self-quarantine,” and Leonie’s biggest concern, “social distancing.”
But those aren’t the words I’m sharing in this post. A search of the Internet turned up a nice collection of newly-coined words and phrases. Some have their own memes. (Full disclosure: Last year I finally broke down and looked up what a “meme” is!) Here are some of my favorites:
ZOOM BOMBING: When an univited guest disrupts a virtual meeting with offensive or otherwise unwelcome images or words. I think the little kid who crawled in the background during a Zoom call is okay. And maybe that guy’s wife who tried desperately to get the kids out of the room during her husband’s video-conference.
COVID-BRAIN: I’m claiming myself to be the originator of this term. Somehow I prefer to associate my lack of memory with a pandemic rather than my impending senility.
CORONACATION: Coronavirus-compelled staycation due to cancelled classes, shifts, and the like. Example: My niece Maya has no idea what the coronavirus is. She just thinks she’s on a coronacation from pre-school.
QUARANTNI: Pretty self- explanatory. Usually heard during a virtual happy hour.
CORONIALS: This will be how we refer to those babies conceived while people have been quarantined at home.
CORONAGEDDON: Why is everything of apocalyptic proportions these days? Connecticut get 6 inches of snow and the weather folks call it a “snowmegaddon.” Oh, wait – this is a pandemic. I guess it qualifies.
I found a variety of definitions for the word COVID on the Urban Dictionary site:
- Noun. A derogatory term for a child conceived during the COVID-19 pandemic. Example: “Get over here you little Covid.” by Stradigos, Mar. 21, 2020
- Noun. A unit of measurement equal to six feet. Example: “He’s at least one covid tall.” by Pandaemonium, Apr. 3, 2020
- Adjective. Wearing a mask and gloves. Example: “No officer, I didn’t see who robbed the bank. He was all covid.” adapted from BuckToothBooty Apr. 14, 2020
- Adjective: Confined to one’s home. Example: “I haven’t had my hair colored in 3 months. I’m staying covid.” adapted from pseudokimm, Apr. 8, 2020
- Noun. A mean name kids in 2030 will use to belittle other kids. Example: “Get away from me, you covid!” adapted from it’smeyourcousin, Apr. 27, 2020
Here’s one I saw on my daughter’s Facebook feed:
But my all-time personal favorite (and mostly likely Leonie’s too) is:
As the saying goes, “rules are made to be broken.” That must be the credo these morons live by. According to a recent article in The Economist, the term may have originated in Britain, bestowed upon those panic buyers of toilet paper. There are so many reports of covidiotic behavior, it’s almost surprising the human race hasn’t yet extingished itself.
PLEASE PEOPLE! Listen to Leonie! She has more common sense than those knuckleheads packing the beaches this Memorial Day weekend, or those two hairdressers in Missouri who may have exposed more than 140 people when they continued to work, even though they were symptomatic. Listen to the children. It’s their future we are compromising.
Sources:
“Coronavirus Has Led To An Explosion Of New Words And Phrases – And That Helps Us Cope”. 2020. The Conversation. Accessed May 25 2020. https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-has-led-to-an-explosion-of-new-words-and-phrases-and-that-helps-us-cope-136909.
“Do You Speak Corona? A Guide To Covid-19 Slang”. 2020. The Economist. Accessed May 25 2020. https://www.economist.com/news/2020/04/10/do-you-speak-corona-a-guide-to-covid-19-slang.
Golds, Danielle. 2020. “Coronavirus Is Changing The Dictionary”. Quartz. Accessed May 24 2020. https://qz.com/1849500/covid-19-elbow-bump-and-self-isolate-are-new-dictionary-eGolds, Danielle. 2020. “Coronavirus Is Changing The Dictionary”. Quartz. Accessed May 25 2020. https://qz.com/1849500/covid-19-elbow-bump-and-self-isolate-are-new-dictionary-entries/.
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