Pandemic dominates English-language conversations for third year

For the third consecutive year, words relating to the pandemic dominated English conversation, according to the US-based Global Language Monitor.

The organisation began recording the top words of the year in 2000 to document the history of the 21st century through the English language. The words are culled throughout the English-speaking world, which by January 2021 ranked more than 3.18-billion speakers, it says. Its official estimate of the number of words in the English language by November 11 is 1,074,372..4

“English has continued to churn out about 14.7 neologisms a day — about 5,366 words a year. However, not all words are considered worthy to be added to the most authoritative and respected English-language dictionaries, the unabridged and various editions of the Oxford English Dictionary (UK), Merriam Webster (US), American Heritage (US), Collins (UK), and Macquarie (Australia),” it adds.

“In 2022 we observed three major trends in the development of the English language: the persistence of pandemic-related words for the third year in a row, the acceleration of the spread of the language ever wider in all corners of the planet and global English insinuating itself ever more deeply into the language of academia, science, technology, politics, commerce, transportation and entertainment, said Paul JJ Payack, president and chief word analyst of the body.

These are its top global English words for 2022 by rank, word or phrase:

1. Denier — Concept encompasses 'Hater', 'Cancel Culture' and 'Deniers' of an ever-expanding list of facts, fallacies and beliefs.
2. Covid — one of the top words in global English, again.
3. Right to Life — Pro-life position (compare with 19).
4. Ukraine — Top non-pandemic word in 2022.
5. Zero — In retail, 'zero' used to mean 'nothing', but now embodies 'goodness', 'health' and 'beauty'.
6. Price of petrol — Prices up 49% year over year.
7. Vaccine — No 2 word of the pandemic.
8. Variant — Variant after variant after variant.
9. Climate change — One of the top phrases of the century thus far.
10. Pandemic — Pandemics tend to last for a number of years (or decades).
11. Supply chain — Supply chains take decades to set up but can quickly crumble.
12. Booster dose — Boosted, double boosted, triple boosted ...
13. Diesel — Warning: civilisation does not run on gasoline; it runs on diesel.
14. Cancel culture — Forced to quit by intense social media pressure.
15. Inflation definition — Too much money chasing too few goods.
16. Global warming — Again one of the top 10 words of the century.
17. Democracy — 600% stronger than 'Democracy at risk'.
18. Omicron — Coronavirus Omicron variant; the first of many to come.
19. Abortion rights — A relatively modest position on the list (No 3, 'Right to life', is 400% stronger).
20. Donald Trump — After years of sparring Joe and the Donald are still neck and neck.
21. Joe Biden — After years of sparing the Donald and Joe are still neck and neck.
22. Nuclear weapons — War in Ukraine once again brings issue to the forefront.
23. Xi Jinping — Methodically executing China's long-term policy agenda.
24. Metaverse — Where cyberspace and reality collide.
25. Civil War — GLM's been tracking the Civil War since 2003.
26. Vladimir Putin — Under intense pressure to right the ship.
27. Pumpkin spice — Many are surprised to learn, has no pumpkin in it.
28. Hater — Key component of hater, denier, cancel culture trichotomy.
29. Democracy at risk — For the uninformed, democracy has been at risk since Athens in 404BC.
30. Fungible (NFT) — The Letter F in Non-fungible Tokens.
31. Regina Elisabetta II — Queen Elizabeth II.
32. West Texas Crude — The benchmark price in the world's most productive oil patch.
33. Strategic petrol reserve — Set up for wartime emergencies; rapidly being depleted in effort to cut price at the pump.
34. Royal Glyph — Perhaps the world's first emoji; the official signature of the British Crown.
35. Shrinkflation — Package gets smaller while the price remains the same.
36. Neopronouns* — Dozens of new pronouns created to engender gender 'fluidity'.
37. Lockdown — Lockdown can feel like being locked up.

* Here is a list of gender-neutral pronouns:

• He/She — Zie, Sie, Ey, Ve, Tey, E
• Him/Her — Zim, Sie, Em, Ver, Ter, Em
• His/Her — Zir, Hir, Eir, Vis, Tem, Eir
• His/Hers — Zis, Hirs, Eirs, Vers, Ters, Eirs
• Himself/Herself — Zieself, Hirself, Eirself, Verself, Terself, Emself.

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