10-09-2020

Fiona McPhersonOED New Words EditorOxford University Press

Patricia StewartOED Science EditorOxford University Press

Kate WildOED Executive Editor, Strategic Lexical ProjectsOxford University Press

The language of Covid-19: special OED update

Please note that this presentation will be recorded, including the Q&A

Presented by

Why update?

• Social change brings about language change

• Unique position of the OED

• Snapshot of society

• All entries included are free at oed.com

New in April 2020

The only neologism

Then and now

Fuller form

Gradual shift in meaning

Coined for a previous epidemic

Since 1925…

Since 1837…

Since 1976…

Since 1976…

What’s next?

Trish Stewart, OED Science Editor

Scientific Terminology of Covid-19• April update focused on words relating to the social and economic impact of Covid-

19

• July update focused on words relating to the virus itself, its effects, and potential treatments

• increased usage in scientific terminology in the media, especially terms from virology and epidemiology

Covid-19 (Covid, C-19, CV-19, CV, corona)

cytokine storm

hydroxychloroquine

dexamethasone

community transmission (community spread)

R (R number)

reproduction number(reproductive number)

R0

Kate Wild, OED Editor

Corpus analysis for the Covid-19 updates

• corpus n.: “a collection of written or spoken material in machine-readable form, assembled for the purpose of studying linguistic structures, frequencies, etc.”

• Oxford Monitor Corpus of English: currently over 10 billion words of web-based news content from 2017 to the present day; more data added each month

• Examples of questions that a lexicographer might ask of a corpus:– What are the most typical collocates of this word?

– How is this word usually spelled?

– What regional variety(-ies) is this word used in?

– What words are used especially frequently in this region/subject area/period of time?

Corpus keywords, January to July 2020January February March April May June July

bushfire Covid-19 Covid-19 PPE reopen defund covering

coronavirus coronavirus pandemic lockdown lockdown Juneteenth Covid

Iranian quarantine distancing pandemic Covid-19 brutality in-person

SARS pandemic coronavirus ventilator pandemic anti-racism mask

Iraqi virus self-isolate stay-at-home Covid racism mask-wearing

sign-stealing outbreak lockdown Covid-19 distancing Covid pandemic

koala caucus self-isolation furlough hydroxychloroquine Confederate distanced

virus locust sanitiser/sanitizer distancing covering looting Covid-19

impeachment infect quarantine coronavirus furlough covering SARS-CoV-2

airstrike epicentre/epicenter ventilator N95 stay-at-home kneel pre-pandemic

word number of co-occurrences

face 36,663

facial 2,646

cloth 272

wear 269

protective 171

floor 152

covering (noun)collocates immediately preceding covering n. in the Oxford Monitor Corpus, Feb.–July 2020

covering n. – unrevised entry in OED2a. That which covers or is adapted to cover, whether for protection, shelter, concealment, or adornment; a cover; a cloth to spread over;… [etc.]

+ new specific sense?

self-isolate and self-quarantine

Top 10 collocates of self-isolate and related forms

symptoms14-daydistancingquarantineprecautionadvisedtravellersmandatoryshieldingtested

Top 10 collocates of self-quarantine and related forms

14-dayundergomandatorytravelersprecautioninstructeddistancingtwo-weekadvisedsymptoms

10 most salient collocates within five words of self-isolat* (including self-isolates, self-isolated, self-isolating, self-isolation) and self-quarantin* (including self-quarantine, self-quarantines, self-quarantined, self-quarantining) in the Oxford Monitor Corpus

self-isolate and self-quarantineUK USA

Frequency of self-isolate (and self-isolates, self-isolated, self-isolating, self-isolation) and self-quarantine (and self-quarantines, self-quarantined, self-quarantining) in the Oxford Monitor Corpus, January to July 2020.

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self-quarantine and related forms

self-isolate and related forms

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self-quarantine and related forms

self-isolate and related forms

Covid-19 or COVID-19?

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UK Republic ofIreland

USA Canada Australia New Zealand India South Africa

Covid-19 COVID-19 other

Relative frequencies of Covid-19/COVID-19 in selected varieties of English in the Oxford Monitor Corpus. ‘Other’ includes covid-19, CoVID-19, Covid19, etc.

headword and variant forms of Covid-19 n. in OED

Some words we’re watching

Frequency of maskne, doomscroll/doomscrolling, and quarantini in the Oxford Monitor Corpus, January to July 2020

Frequencies in July, for comparison:

maskne: 0.25 per million tokens

hydroxychloroquine: 9 per million tokenscontact tracing: 23 per million tokensface covering: 54 per million tokens

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maskne doomscroll/doomscrolling quarantini

oed.uk@oup.com