COVID-19 Lingo
Just a few months ago, terms like "social distancing" and "pandemic" rarely entered the daily lexicon across America. But like so many other parts of life, how we talk and the words we use on a daily basis have been rapidly and profoundly affected by the coronavirus crisis. The changes have been so significant that Merriam-Webster announced it was making an unscheduled update to the dictionary in order to add words associated with the disease and the resulting global response. The New York Times recently issued a coronavirus glossary of sorts, as did the Reuters news organization. While some of these words are new, others have been around for a while but are newly prominent or have revised definitions. Here's a closer look at the words and phrases that are suddenly part of our "new normal" (something else everyone is suddenly talking about all the time).
Related: How the Pandemic Has Changed What We're Searching for Online
Kris Scott contributed to this story.