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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freq
uen
cy p
er m
illio
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ken
s
self-quarantine and related forms
self-isolate and related forms
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freq
uen
cy p
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self-quarantine and related forms
self-isolate and related forms
Covid-19 or COVID-19?
0%
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100%
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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0.05
0.10
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0.20
0.25
0.30
January February March April May June July
freq
uen
cy p
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illio
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s
maskne doomscroll/doomscrolling quarantini