I learned a new word last week: Streateries (streeteries?) are streets that have been converted to outdoor dining areas. They make it possible for people to eat out (literally) and for restaurants to make a buck during quarantimes.
Also last week, a client (hi, Laurie!) send me a list of COVID-19 portmanteau words, including covidiot, infodemic, quarantini, and my favorite, infits (as opposed to outfits that you wear when you go out).
A portmanteau used to be a kind of suitcase with two parts that buckled together. Lewis Carroll coined the use of portmanteau to describe words in Through the Looking Glass.
Alice asks Humpty Dumpty to explain the poem “Jabberwocky,” which begins:
Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe…
Humpty explains, “slithy means ‘lithe and slimy.’ … You see it’s like a portmanteau – there are two meanings packed up into one word.”
Slithy didn’t catch on, but chortle did, from later in the poem, a portmanteau of chuckle and snort.
We use – and coin – portmanteaus all the time, from oldies like motel and brunch to newer terms like Brexit and mansplain.
Language changes to keep up with changing communication needs, which in turn keep up with changing circumstances.
When circumstances change rapidly and profoundly, so does our language.
New portmanteaus are only one kind of linguistic innovation in the coronaverse. We also have:
- Words and acronyms that existed before but were not common: coronavirus, PPE
- Old words and phrases that took on new meaning: lockdown, bubble
- At least one trade name that became a verb: “I’m zooming with them later.”
We can’t know how long these terms will last. Some will fade away when the crisis passes, but some will hang on. Almost 50 years later, people who don’t remember what happened at the Watergate Hotel still use gate as a suffix to denote a scandal.
What’s your favorite quarantimes word or phrase?