April 10, 2020
How To Speak COVID: A guide to Corona-slang
The Economist magazine just published a guide to COVID slang. We distilled it.
The full article is available for reading (highly recommend) here.
Hamsteren
To stuff one’s cheeks. Hoarding.
Panic buying for beginners
Sign-language interpreters rarely get noticed, let alone upstage the person they're signing for. But during the early stages of the coronavirus epidemic in Europe, a Dutch signer went viral when she translated a government minister’s warning not to hoard food with a pinched nose and rodent-like clawing with her hands. She was signing the word “hamsteren”, which means stuffing food into your cheeks like a hamster, or, as it’s more commonly used, to hoard.
Covidiot
Someone who ignores public health advice (noun)
Where there are rules, there are those who break them
Even in a pandemic, many of us are prone to judge others and find them wanting: the term “covidiot” describes any and every person behaving stupidly or irresponsibly as the epidemic spreads. Sometime in early March the word was born, and, almost as fast as the virus spread, so did instances of covidiotic behaviour.
你别来我无恙 (nǐbiélái wǒwúyàng)
If you don’t come, I won’t come to any harm
Catching an old Chinese expression
People in China often use an old pleasantry, 别来无恙 (biéláiwúyàng), to greet each other after a long time apart. The literal translation is “I hope nothing bad has happened since we last said farewell”. In common parlance the phrase essentially means, “I hope you’ve been well”. It’s respectful, but conveys warmth and care too.
But the term’s ancient origins have new bearing in the time of covid-19. According to “I Ching”, the “Book of Changes”, a book on divination and wisdom from the ninth century BC, the final character of the expression, 恙 (yàng), originally referred to a highly contagious bug that caused acute fever and a rash. In its early usage, then, people used this phrase to ask someone if they have become infected since they’d last met – the expression was uttered partly to wish someone well, partly as a warning to stay away if they were contagious.
Quatorzaine
14-day isolation period (noun)
The French almost make isolation sound romantic
The French language helped to give the English-speaking world the term “quarantine”, which derives from quarantaine, meaning a period of 40 days. Now the French have dug up another word, quatorzaine, to refer to the 14-day self-isolation period recommended during the covid-19 crisis. “How many pupils are en quatorzaine?” a French radio host asked the education minister, Jean-Michel Blanquer, shortly before he closed down schools in March. “Two doctors en quatorzaine” runs a typical newspaper headline.
Miss Rona
A new way to refer to covid-19
Coronavirus colloquialism
The prickly sphere of the novel coronavirus has become a familiar sight. Now imagine the same sphere, but badly photoshopped with hoop earrings, Mrs Potatohead lips and fake nails. “Gay men always add ‘miss’ to popular things,” says Aaron Leigh, a black, gay podcaster based in Atlanta. “‘Miss Rona’ basically means it has a nasty attitude or it’s a sassy virus.” In black culture, too, adding “Miss” usually means you’re thought of as messy or problematic, says Jonathan Higgins, a queer, black writer. The personification captures the mundane ways in which the virus has disrupted our lives: cancelling our plans, testing our relationships, watching over us as we wash our hands until they’re scaly.
Coronaspeck
Coronavirus fat (noun)
Some Germans are feeding their fear
Coronaspeck is the helpful German word for the fat deposited by weeks of stay-at-home grazing. Shoppers in Germany may know Speck as a bacon-like foodstuff, perhaps found on a crisp Flammkuchen or inside hearty Swabian Maultaschen. But its broader meaning corresponds to something like the English "flab". Babyspeck, for example, is the puppy fat that lingers into adolescence; Winterspeck a memento of excessive indulgence in cold months. Best known is Kummerspeck, or "sorrow-fat": think a tear-streaked Bridget Jones devouring tubs of ice-cream in the throes of a break-up.
The full article is available for reading (highly recommend) here.
Hamsteren
To stuff one’s cheeks. Hoarding.
Panic buying for beginners
Sign-language interpreters rarely get noticed, let alone upstage the person they're signing for. But during the early stages of the coronavirus epidemic in Europe, a Dutch signer went viral when she translated a government minister’s warning not to hoard food with a pinched nose and rodent-like clawing with her hands. She was signing the word “hamsteren”, which means stuffing food into your cheeks like a hamster, or, as it’s more commonly used, to hoard.
Covidiot
Someone who ignores public health advice (noun)
Where there are rules, there are those who break them
Even in a pandemic, many of us are prone to judge others and find them wanting: the term “covidiot” describes any and every person behaving stupidly or irresponsibly as the epidemic spreads. Sometime in early March the word was born, and, almost as fast as the virus spread, so did instances of covidiotic behaviour.
你别来我无恙 (nǐbiélái wǒwúyàng)
If you don’t come, I won’t come to any harm
Catching an old Chinese expression
People in China often use an old pleasantry, 别来无恙 (biéláiwúyàng), to greet each other after a long time apart. The literal translation is “I hope nothing bad has happened since we last said farewell”. In common parlance the phrase essentially means, “I hope you’ve been well”. It’s respectful, but conveys warmth and care too.
But the term’s ancient origins have new bearing in the time of covid-19. According to “I Ching”, the “Book of Changes”, a book on divination and wisdom from the ninth century BC, the final character of the expression, 恙 (yàng), originally referred to a highly contagious bug that caused acute fever and a rash. In its early usage, then, people used this phrase to ask someone if they have become infected since they’d last met – the expression was uttered partly to wish someone well, partly as a warning to stay away if they were contagious.
Quatorzaine
14-day isolation period (noun)
The French almost make isolation sound romantic
The French language helped to give the English-speaking world the term “quarantine”, which derives from quarantaine, meaning a period of 40 days. Now the French have dug up another word, quatorzaine, to refer to the 14-day self-isolation period recommended during the covid-19 crisis. “How many pupils are en quatorzaine?” a French radio host asked the education minister, Jean-Michel Blanquer, shortly before he closed down schools in March. “Two doctors en quatorzaine” runs a typical newspaper headline.
Miss Rona
A new way to refer to covid-19
Coronavirus colloquialism
The prickly sphere of the novel coronavirus has become a familiar sight. Now imagine the same sphere, but badly photoshopped with hoop earrings, Mrs Potatohead lips and fake nails. “Gay men always add ‘miss’ to popular things,” says Aaron Leigh, a black, gay podcaster based in Atlanta. “‘Miss Rona’ basically means it has a nasty attitude or it’s a sassy virus.” In black culture, too, adding “Miss” usually means you’re thought of as messy or problematic, says Jonathan Higgins, a queer, black writer. The personification captures the mundane ways in which the virus has disrupted our lives: cancelling our plans, testing our relationships, watching over us as we wash our hands until they’re scaly.
Coronaspeck
Coronavirus fat (noun)
Some Germans are feeding their fear
Coronaspeck is the helpful German word for the fat deposited by weeks of stay-at-home grazing. Shoppers in Germany may know Speck as a bacon-like foodstuff, perhaps found on a crisp Flammkuchen or inside hearty Swabian Maultaschen. But its broader meaning corresponds to something like the English "flab". Babyspeck, for example, is the puppy fat that lingers into adolescence; Winterspeck a memento of excessive indulgence in cold months. Best known is Kummerspeck, or "sorrow-fat": think a tear-streaked Bridget Jones devouring tubs of ice-cream in the throes of a break-up.