‘Pandemic’ chosen as Word of the Year

The 2020 prize for Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year went to an obvious choice: pandemic. The term had the most online dictionary lookups of any word, Merriam-Webster said on its website, after a year in which at least 1.5 million people globally have died from the Covid-19 pandemic. The word's Greek roots are "pan," meaning all or every and "demos," meaning people, Merriam-Webster said. Last year's winner was "they" as used to describe someone who does not identify as male nor female. That follows winners "justice" in 2018, "feminism" in 2017 and "surreal" in 2016.

Source: AFP