The power of words
‘‘Words, Caravaggio. They have a power.’’ – Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient
As a species, words intrigue us, each craft or profession developing its own slang, each social class and ethnic group its signature argot. We dust off and resurrect old words, redefine them into new meaning, adopt specialised words into the mainstream. This year, it felt likewords were all we had and talk all we could do, commiserating with each other or railing against the fates that had ruined our wedding plans, graduations and proms, travel dreams or just about anything else.
The year-end declaration by various notable sources of Word of the Year for 2020 spoke volumes about the year it was.
‘‘Lockdown’’ was the winner, declared Collins Dictionary, encapsulating in two syllables the baleful experience of billions of people. ‘‘Pandemic,’’ said MerriamWebster, which found searches of that
word began spiking infebruary as our world sat on the brink of change.
So rich was our language in 2020 that Oxford Dictionaries couldn’t even make up its mind, chipping in with amenu that included ‘‘lockdown,’’ ‘‘bubble,’’ ‘‘PPE’’ and ‘‘essential workers’’, ‘‘Black Lives Matter,’’ ‘‘conspiracy theory’’ and ‘‘mailin’’, and ‘‘cancel culture’’.
Words have the power to clarify, console, amuse, explain and rally us. This year, emergency room doctors, epidemiologists and public health practitioners took the spotlight, trying to educate, edify and exhort citizens to the patience, unselfishness and fortitude that dealing with the pandemic required.
We became fluent in ‘‘community spread’’, ‘‘super-spreader events’’ and appreciative of ‘‘essential services’’ and ‘‘monoclonal antibodies’’. We now know ‘‘Zoom’’ is not just about speed, and ‘‘bubble’’ is more than fun with soap.
Words have a power, thewriter Madeleine L’engle said, because we think in words, and the more wordswe know, the more sophisticated our thinking. They have a power, the playwright Tom Stoppard added, because the right words in the right order – think ‘‘I have a dream’’ – can nudge theworld a little.
Views from around the world. These opinions are not necessarily shared by Stuff newspapers.