MERRIAM-WEBSTER ADDS MORE CORONAVIRUS TERMS, INCLUDING “SELF-ISOLATE,” “CONTACTLESS,” AND “PPE”

More COVID Words, there are so many!

Merriam-Webster just added more of them to their online dictionary.  They already added a bunch back in March, including “COVID-19”, “social distancing”, and “community spread.”

 

Here are ten new ones they just added.

 

1.  “Self-isolate” . . . to isolate or separate oneself from others.

 

2.  “Physical distancing” . . . the practice of maintaining a greater than usual distance between yourself and others.

 

3.  “Contactless” . . . not involving contact.  Like contactless delivery.

 

4.  “WFH” . . . it stands for “working from home.”

 

5.  “PPE” . . . or personal protective equipment.

 

6.  “Forehead thermometer” . . . which we’ve all seen now.

 

7.  “Intensivist” . . . a doctor who specializes in intensive care.

 

8.  “Epidemic curve” . . . a.k.a. the curve we’ve been trying to flatten.

 

9.  “Herd immunity” . . . when a significant proportion of the population has become immune.

 

10.  “Iatrophobia”  (eye-ah-truh-FO-bee-uh), an intense fear of doctors.  They also added hundreds of words that AREN’T linked to the outbreak.  Including “deepfake”, “dark web”, “truthiness”, and the slang term “thirsty.”

More