Sydney, Nov. 17, (dpa/GNA) – The word “iso,” a slang term for coronavirus self-isolation, has been named as the 2020 word of the year by the Australian National Dictionary Centre (ANDC).
Each year the centre, which is based at The Australian National University in Canberra, chooses a word or expression that has gained prominence in the Australian social landscape.
The winning word was among a long list of pandemic-related terms, but iso stood out as being “a characteristically Aussie abbreviation,” the ANDC said in a statement Tuesday.
“Our fondness for abbreviating words in Australia, and a natural human inclination to make the unknown and scary familiar, quickly saw the descriptive term ‘self-isolation’ shortened to iso in March this year,” senior researcher Mark Gwynn said.
The act of self-isolation – remaining away from others to limit the spread of Covid-19 – sparked worldwide trends such as bread baking and do it yourself (DIY) home haircuts.
“Not only is iso distinctively Australian in usage, it has also been linguistically productive by combining with other words to form compounds such as iso baking, iso bar, iso cut and iso fashion,” Gwynn said.
“Many of us found humour in language use as a way to cope with our changed working and social circumstances, so why not talk about a bad self-inflicted haircut as an iso cut, or the extra weight gained due to lack of exercise as iso kilos.”
Other words on this year’s shortlist included “Black Summer,” referring to the country’s devastating 2019-20 bush fire season, and “Covid-normal” which describes the state of adapting to an acceptable level of Covid-19 in the community.
GNA