2020 changed our lives, including our vocabulary
31 Dec 2020
People pray on a sidewalk marked for social distancing in front of a Buddhist shrine in central Bangkok on Tuesday. Agence France-Presse
Deborah Netburn,
Tribune News Service
The global pandemic has changed every aspect of our lives — how we work, how we socialise, how we dress. And without us even noticing, it also has changed how we talk.
As 2020 came to a close, many of us found ourselves fluent in a new language that would have been nearly indecipherable just one year ago.
If we mention having a “socially distanced” picnic with friends, we can safely assume the listener knows we all stayed at least 6 feet apart and did not share food or drinks. You don’t have to be a public health official to wonder when your state will “flatten the curve,” and thoughtful folks now talk about going into “self-isolation” after learning they were exposed to the virus.