Lexigame Community
General Category => Words => Topic started by: TRex on January 13, 2021, 11:00:09 AM
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Might this be a candidate for adding to the word list?
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i tried it and chuckled when it came up as 'unknown' ;D
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Normally seen it as all caps and/or with the -19 attached. I tried it too but not surprised it didn't work.
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Normally seen it as all caps and/or with the -19 attached. I tried it too but not surprised it didn't work.
I know I've seen it without the '-19' and I know I've seen it without all caps. Not sure if I've seen it without an initial capital.
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I also tried it & when it came up as unknown, my first thought was that until about 12 months ago, i would not have had a clue.
I wish that i was just as clueless today.
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I also tried it & when it came up as unknown, my first thought was that until about 12 months ago, i would not have had a clue.
I wish that i was just as clueless today.
You and several billion others, Les!
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With a very new word, we shouldn't necessarily be hamstrung by what the dictionaries say, as they can be slow to catch up with new usages. But in this case some of the major dictionaries did respond quickly to the linguistic effects of the pandemic.
The OED added several new entries in May 2020, including self-isolation, social distancing, PPE, elbow bump, etc. But at that stage they seemed to recognize only Covid-19 as the name of the disease. It was in July that the OED listed Covid as another name for the disease.
The online Oxford lists Covid-19, with Covid as a variant. Merriam-Webster online lists COVID-19, with several variants noted, including covid with no caps. Wiktionary has entries for COVID, Covid and covid, with COVID as the main entry.
So there is some dictionary support for the no-caps spelling. When I look at actual usage patterns, I see marked differences between the US and the UK. In recent records from the News on the Web corpus, the UK has COVID 289 times, Covid 736 times and covid 46 times. From the US we have COVID 827 times, Covid 246 times and covid 39 times.
So it seems the all-caps form is favoured in the US, while Covid is preferred in Britain. But in both regions the no-caps covid is occasionally seen.
I feel this is enough to justify accepting covid as a Chi word, but I'm in two minds whether it should be common or rare. Some people will probably refrain from playing it, being convinced that the word must be written with at least one capital letter. But on the other hand, anyone who does play it might be surprised to see it classed as rare. Any thoughts?
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Given that covid (without capitals) is only 'occasionally seen', I think it should be classified as rare.
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Seeing you've asked our thoughts I'll give you mine. I don't like it as a rare or common word. It feels like an abbreviation of COVID-19. So wouldn't rate it as a stand alone word.
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Given that covid (without capitals) is only 'occasionally seen', I think it should be classified as rare.
I agree.
Plus, I hope in a few years we won't be thinking about this disease!
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From now on it will be possible to play covid as a rare word.
Regarding Jacki's comment, we've always allowed words that started out as abbreviations, provided they're now written with no punctuation marks or capital letters. Polio was originally short for poliomyelitis.
TRex, I too hope we won't have occasion to be talking about covid much longer, but major historical episodes are remembered for a long time, and some of their vocabulary survives. A while ago we accepted dotcom as a word, though I doubt if it's ever used these days other than to refer to the investment mania of the 1990s. And of course black plague is an expression we all know.
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Yes I played PAGER as a common word recently and wondered if they were still being used, like PALMTOP! Younger chi players might ask what are they and we will be having to explain what they were.
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Without being pedantic is 'covid' an abbreviation or an acronym (corona viral disease )
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Yes I played PAGER as a common word recently and wondered if they were still being used, like PALMTOP! Younger chi players might ask what are they and we will be having to explain what they were.
Surprisingly, pagers are still being used in some places. I hated carrying one. I called it an 'electronic dog leash'.
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And I think SCUBA (self contained underwater breathing apparatus) is an accepted word that few would know its origin.
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I spend much too much time on Facebook, looking at posts from a wide variety of friends, and see all forms of covid. In spoken casual conversation, though, almost everyone says covic/Covid without the 19. I don't think this word is going to fade into the background for at least a generation or two - it's had too huge an impact on our lives.
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I'll echo what everyone else says. Chi has brought a touch of sanity to a totally insane year...
Thanks Alan - even frustration provides a distraction (will 2021 bring the inclusion of covid into the dictionary???)
Perhaps I was being prescient when I posted this in the Thank you thread to Alan...