‘Lockdown’ declared name of the year by Collins Dictionary

NEW YORK: ‘Lockdown’ has been declared the word of the year 2020 by the Collins Dictionary, after a sharp rise in its usage around the world amid COVID-19 pandemic.

Lockdown is defined by Collins as “the imposition of stringent restrictions on travel, social interaction, and access to public spaces”. The 4.5billion words Collins Corpus, which contains written material from print and electronic medium registered a 6,000% increase in its usage.

In 2019, there were 4,000 recorded instances of lockdown being used. In 2020, this had soared to more than a quarter of a million. Other pandemic-related words such as coronavirus, social distancing, self-isolate and furlough were on the dictionary’s list of the top 10 words.

The dictionary, in this regard, said, “Lockdown, the containment measure implemented by governments around the world to contain the outbreak of the COVID-19, has been named the Collins Word of the Year 2020.”

“Our lexicographers chose ‘lockdown’ as Word of the Year because it is a unifying experience for billions of people across the world, who have had, collectively, to play their part in combating the spread of COVID-19,” it added.

“It’s no surprise that quite a few of the words on Collins Word of the Year 2020 shortlist have one big thing in common: the pandemic,” the site wrote in a blog. “Something that changed everyone’s lives so profoundly – leaving no country or continent untouched – was bound to have a significant impact on our language,” it remarked.

The abbreviation BLM, for Black Lives Matter, also made the shortlist. Defined by Collins as “a movement that campaigns against racially motivated violence and oppression”, it registered a 581% increase in usage.

Previous words of the year for Collins include climate strike in 2019, single-use in 2018, fake news in 2017, and Brexit in 2016.