30 November,2020 07:27 AM IST | Mumbai | Dalreen Ramos
A year which cannot be neatly accommodated in one single word," is how the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defined 2020. And so, it subsequently released a report titled Words of an Unprecedented Year that showcases how we adopted a "new collective vocabulary" - from COVID-related terms like "social distancing", to the personal and political with "Black Lives Matter" and "impeachment." So, we presented three words from the report to city-based avid readers to test if they got it right.
The chosen words and their definition as detailed by OED are below:
Moonshot/noun: An extremely ambitious and innovative project.
Context: The name of a UK government programme - Operation Moonshot - for mass COVID testing.
Mail-in/adjective: Designating ballots, surveys, etc., in which results are collected by mail.
Context: The US elections.
BIPOC/abbreviation: Black, indigenous, and other people of colour.
Context: Ongoing efforts to increase the representation and influence of racial minorities within institutions and organisations.
Pravin Subramanian, customer service professional
Moonshot: If someone wants to achieve a high goal.
Mail-in: Sending in ballots by post.
BIPOC: Don't know. Is it a corruption of the word bivouac?
My word of the year: WFH, because it made redundant corporate culture, and consumerism which bordered on narcissism.
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Vidhya Thakkar, book blogger
Moonshot: A different way of thinking.
Mail-in: Related to voting and in context of 2020, the US elections.
BIPOC: Black and People of Colour.
My word of the year: Quarantine, because I hadn't heard of it until 2020. It was significant for me because I had tested positive for COVID, too.
Michelle D'costa, managing editor, Bound
Moonshot: Nothing comes to mind.
Mail-in: Mailing your votes. An effective way to ensure that all votes were counted.
BIPOC: Black, indigenous and people of colour
My word of the year: Blursday, because I don't know where time is going. Every day feels the same.
How was the list made?
OED doesn't pick its word of the year in a heartbeat. There's a rigorous process involved. Learn more about it at an interactive online session with Casper Grathwohl, Oxford Languages president, and other editors.
On: December 10, 3 pm (GMT)
Log on to: public.oed.com
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