I always love it when new words get added to the dictionary, especially fun words like awesomesauce and automagic.

Merriam-Webster just added another 535 words to their list and quite a few of them deal with our current coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic situation.

Some of the words like self-isolate and physical distancing are pretty obvious. Then there are abbreviations like PPE for personal protective equipment (that would be your face mask), and WFH for work from home.

There are also some new medical terms that weren't in the dictionary before. Immune surveillance is the act of studying how the immune system detects and destroys foreign substances, cells, or tissues. Community immunity and herd immunity are essentially the same thing and refer to a reduction in the risk of infection because a significant number of the population has become immune.

All of these terms may have  you feeling a bit iatrophophobic, that's an intense fear of doctors, or maybe a little nosocomephobic, having an intense fear of hospitals.

The additions aren't limited to medical or pandemic terms, words like microtarget, deep fake, dark web, and deep web also got added.

You can see the full list of additions from Merriam-Webster here. There's nothing with the coolness factor of awesomesauce, but zedonk, a zebra and donkey hybrid, is pretty nifty. And don't forget Stephen Colbert's truthiness! It refers to a seemingly truthful quality not supported by evidence or facts.

 

 

 

 

More From Newstalk 1290