2020 was so chaotic that the Oxford Dictionary chose several words of the year

Reading time: 2 min – Spotted on the BBC

Environment, Covid-19, Black Lives Matter … The year 2020 was full of events and news, which drove the members of the Oxford British Dictionary crazy.

These people, who make it their mission to choose a single word each year to sum up the last twelve months, have had to make a difficult choice for 2020: there are so many words that have marked the year that the Oxford Dictionary has decided designate several.

Obviously, we cannot talk about 2020 without mentioning the Covid-19 pandemic and its consequences. This is why terms related to the health crisis have a prominent place on this list, such as “Covid-19”, “WFH” (short for working from home, the equivalent of teleworking in French), “imprisonment”, “essential worker” and “leave”.

As evidence of the importance of this crisis in our discussions, the use of the word “pandemic” has increased by 57,000% this year. This increase was particularly significant in March, the month during which the 20 most used words online (out of more than 8 billion analyzed) were all linked to Covid-19, the Guardian adds.

QAnon and erase the culture

Other events also marked this special year, such as the important events that took place in the United States, especially after the death of George Floyd. For example, the word “Black Lives Matter,” the name of the American militant movement that gathered crowds this year, is included in the Oxford Dictionary’s Word of the Year list.

Finally, there is also the term “QAnon”, a conspiratorial movement, “forest fire” in reference to the major fires that have spread in the world, “acquittal” in relation to Donald Trump, as well as “cancellation of culture”, this practice which consists in publicly denouncing behavior in order to ostracize a person.

The British dictionary explains the choice of these terms based on what they say “Ethics, mood or concerns from last year and which have lasting potential as terms of cultural significance”. Thus, in 2019, the Oxford Dictionary had chosen “climate emergency”, while in 2018 it had selected “toxic”.