Coronavirus words of the year

[Tom B]

Contactless - a method of payment where you take your credit card out your wallet, back pocket, mouth, or bra, then place it on a reader that another 250 people that day have touched, before reinserting it into wallet, back pocket, mouth or bra... in order to avoid using cash "because that's dirty!"

Key Worker - a phrase blurted out loudly, usually by a middle aged bloke who washes lorries that are used to deliver toilet roll supplies that occasionally go to hospitals, when demanding to jump the supermarket queue; whilst almost never used by surgeons and ambulancemen

The general naff/twee phrases by companies about safety are amusing. It's like they are recycling the same few words but trying to avoid having the same slogan as another firm. "Let's shop safe together" "Keeping you safe whilst shopping with us" etc etc. It's quite similar to the H&S slogans that are embossed on the hi-vis jackets worn by building contractors declaring how safe their site is and how they want everyone to keep safety in mind, and to express their dedication to the cause of copying and pasting risk assessments and keeping them on-site in a dusty folder. Said hi vi is usually worn whilst standing on top of an unsafe ladder and using ill-fitting work equipment to do a job quicker/cheaper.

 

[kez19]

Lockdown
Stay Apart
Hot Bed of Transmission (basic quote from Sturgeon in terms of gyms in terms of Covid-19.... I wonder if this will backfire?)
Remember F/A/C/T/S.... (Scot Government ad)
Covid-Free (another fantasy that one)
Elimination/Eliminate
Test/Protect (prefer the UK Gov slogan than this one)

 

[Class 33]

"We're all in this together."

"We're living in extraordinary times."

 

[SouthEastBuses]

Restrictions
NHS
R number
Positive test
Negative test

 

[adc82140]

"NHS heroes". No. It's a job. A job that I do. I like to think I do it well, as anyone should do in any job. I'm paid quite reasonably for it, that's my reward. If I didn't want to do it, then I can resign.

"God Bless the NHS". Nope, not a religion either. It's a state owned organisation that we pay handsomely for with our taxes. It's also far from perfect, and is utterly inefficient. Whilst 95% of the staff have the best interests of their patients as the top priority, 5% are in it for themselves and are either lazy or self obsessed.

 

[DelayRepay]

'Contact Free' delivery - which seems to mean putting the package on your doorstep rather than handing it to you.

 

[duncanp]

"NHS heroes". No. It's a job. A job that I do. I like to think I do it well, as anyone should do in any job. I'm paid quite reasonably for it, that's my reward. If I didn't want to do it, then I can resign.

"God Bless the NHS". Nope, not a religion either. It's a state owned organisation that we pay handsomely for with our taxes. It's also far from perfect, and is utterly inefficient. Whilst 95% of the staff have the best interests of their patients as the top priority, 5% are in it for themselves and are either lazy or self obsessed.

When I said on Facebook that "..if worshipping the NHS is the new religion, then I am going to become an atheist.." I got quite a number of critical comments.

Don't get me wrong - I know that staff treating COVID-19 patients have worked incredibly hard, but whilst COVID-19 has exposed the strengths of the NHS it has also exposed its' weaknesses, with many treatments being cancelled or delayed, and it becoming almost impossible to see a GP in person.

Does anyone remember the episode of Yes Minister when there was a brand new hospital with no patients in it. And yet that has become a realit, with the Nightingale Hospitals largely unused?

I have even seen a banner with the NHS described as the National Hero Service, which I think is a bit cringeworthy, even for those who work in the NHS.

 

[Mag_seven]

Has anyone mentioned the phrase "slow the spread" yet?

 

[Cowley]

Has anyone mentioned the phrase "slow the spread" yet?

No, nor “Flatten the curve” surprisingly.

 

[mlambeuk]

Now more than ever
Lockdown
Blended learning
Air bridges
members of the same household

 

[talldave]

No, nor “Flatten the curve” surprisingly.

At least that one can be recycled for tackling obesity !

 

[duncanp]

We have had bubble already, but not support bubble

I have also seen the current situation used as a euphemisim for "the pandemic".

 

[Westcountryman]

Contactless - a method of payment where you take your credit card out your wallet, back pocket, mouth, or bra, then place it on a reader that another 250 people that day have touched, before reinserting it into wallet, back pocket, mouth or bra... in order to avoid using cash "because that's dirty!"

Just to be clear. A contactless card is contactless. You do not have to touch the reader, Just hold it about 1 inch, ~2cm from the reader and it will work. So there is no issue.

 

[Huntergreed]

My 3 most hated words/phrases at present:

“Essential”
“Unprecedented”
“For the greater good”

 

[Yew]

2 m
1 m
1.5 m
6 ft

1m Plus

 

[Bantamzen]

There's one word that has thus far been left out:

Compliance

We now talk in terms of compliance, making our society sound just a little more dystopian.

 

[brad465]

We have had bubble already, but not support bubble

I have also seen the current situation used as a euphemisim for "the pandemic".

I've used "the current situation" often in conversation, but back in March before it all kicked off big time, I used to describe covid as "you know what", which up until that point was specially reserved for Brexit.

 

[Islineclear3_1]

Self-isolate

Self-quarantine

Fomite (where door knobs/surfaces have been "contaminated")

Aerosol-generating procedures (well-known in the medical or industrial field but lesser known/used in the public domain)

Cohort

Droplet transmission

Containment

 

[Grumpy Git]

'World class', (as in Conservative Party head office opinion only).

 

[507021]

Stay alert.
Control the virus.
Save lives.

 

[Nicholas43]

Lockdown

Originally (chiefly US): total confinement of prisoners to their cells, for example following a riot.
From March 2020 (also Brit): Mostly unenforced exhortation of citizens not to go out much, following rules (a) chiefly invented by Facebook Karens; also (b) mentioned in ever-changing and usually incoherent ukases of government ministers; and (c) set out in unread and largely unreadable regulations made by statutory instrument under emergency powers.

 

[trainophile]

Nuanced. Done to death that one.

 

[brad465]

'World class', (as in Conservative Party head office opinion only).

Don't think we've mentioned the similarly used 'World beating', which certainly doesn't apply to anything positive about our handling of this.

There are plenty of 3 word/part slogans that can and have been mentioned because one of the very few things the Government is good at is marketing tools.

 

[Islineclear3_1]

The bus is now full (with 20-30 pax on board)

 

[kez19]

Politicising
Loved ones
Community/Community Spirit
Constant review (yet no further updates or how they looking/investigating further)

 

[Richard Scott]

Expert - who are these experts and what are they expert in? A hugely overused phrase.

 

[trainophile]

How could I forget "whack-a-mole". The mole population of the UK is still cowering from that one.

 

[Mag_seven]

"Following the science"
"Guided by the science"

 

[DB]

"Following the science"
"Guided by the science"

And these phrases are never acommpanied by links to the actual 'science' which demonstrates the point being made - there's either no evidence given, or the evidence doesn't match the claims made for it (e.g. masks in shops, where the supposed evidence normally cites studies in healthcare settings).

 

[island]

Why is it “the science” rather than just “science”? I’ve never heard “science” take the definite article before this year.