Four months ago, the term COVID-19 didn't even exist. As the novel coronavirus pandemic sweeps across the planet and changes how society operates, it's also fundamentally changing the way we talk, Department of Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics professor Sheila Embleton explains to the Toronto Star.
As time passes, COVID-19 "buzz words" on social media continue to be on the rise - showing how our vocabulary is evolving more quickly in the age of the internet, due to the ability to almost immediately add words to an online dictionary instead of having to wait for the next print edition.
Some of these terms will likely dissipate after the pandemic, but Embleton suspects some, such as self isolation, will become a permanent part of our vocabulary.
Click here to read the full article published in the Toronto Star.