Pivoting and shifting and other new words for the times
We’ve all learned some new words this past year. Zoom has become a synonym for a meeting. Businesses have faced the need to pivot, to shift their business model. We’re all learning that we have to mask up before seeing other people.
This is how language evolves. When you think back about different times in history, you might think about the words they used during that period. Some of those words survived and some, mercifully, faded with the decade itself.
While we may think of the description of being cool–that is, those of us old enough for that memory (ahem)–we remember it being the thing to say in the 1960s and 70s. The word actually dates back to the 1930s though. Cool is one of those words that stuck and is still used today to describe something that’s good. Although I’ve been told that if you say you’re “hip” … you’re definitely not.
Will our COVID vocabulary stick? Will we continue to pivot and shift? To Zoom? Will we ever be able to get non-contact out of our daily verbiage?
Some language changes are for the good. Some are not. Hopefully, in the very near future, social distancing will become a phrase from the past.
In the meantime, stay safe and stay healthy.
Has your language changed? What are the new words you want to use more or get rid of in 2021?
