In 1971, the Association for the German language began the practice of choosing a word that was the most representative of the previous year. The word (WOTY), chosen by various means, is selected as the most important word expressed in the public sphere in that year. In 1991 the American Dialect Society began to offer one or more words of the year. Several bodies of determination have emerged, and thus we get a variety of words chosen. Dictionaries take the lead in this assessment.

Now words of the decade are also chosen. Google was chosen for the 2000s. Words for centuries are also chosen, and jazz was the word for the twentieth Century. She was chosen as the word for the last millennium.

It gets more and more complex as words are chosen in multiple categories, such as most useful and most unnecessary. In 2015 manbun was chosen as the most unnecessary. In addition, different countries choose different words. Australia has chosen “iso” for its WOTY for 2020. This is the Australian abbreviation of isolation. If the Aussies can shorten something, they do!

For the nerds amongst you, the Oxford English Dictionary published an hour-long U-Tube video on how the word is chosen and why, in 2020, many words had to be chosen and not just one. https://languages.oup.com/word-of-the-year/2020/

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary has chosen pandemic as the WOTY of 2020. On March 11th, 2020, The World Health Organization declared that COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic. Pandemic is defined as an outbreak of a disease that occurs in multiple countries or continents and affects a significant proportion of the population. Merriam-Webster found that of all the words looked up in 2020, pandemic sustained being the most researched over the entire year. It is my choice too.

A month or so ago, I heard Noubar Afeyan, the Co-founder and Chairman of Moderna, interviewed on CNN. I was impressed. Afeyan is a two-time immigrant. He was born to Armenian parents in Lebanon, immigrated with his parents to Canada as a teen and went to school in our country. He then went to MIT and alas, we lost him in the brain drain to the USA. There are now 820 employees at Moderna and they have citizenship all over the world. Their scholarship has given us a vaccine now being administered everywhere in the world.

This COVID-19 pandemic will be stopped by a pan meaning “all” or “every” and demos meaning “people.” The pandemic will be stopped and healed by “all the people.” This is becoming literally true.

When Afeyan spoke, he stressed that a pandemic is world-wide. He was warning us that nationalizing their vaccine would be counter-productive; in fact, a disaster. He said that, if the virus was anywhere in the world, it is and will continue to be dangerous. Coming from such an international citizen, these statements came with significant authenticity.

For me, it challenged me to share. I was glad that as a country we had ordered enough vaccine to share. As a person, I realized I had to more patient in waiting my turn, never my strong suit. I liked the irony that the vaccine was coming from the minds of people from everywhere who were literally, in many cases, immigrants. Whatever impulses are inside of us to reject the other must give way when that shot goes in our arm. It will be a moment of oneness; a deep and healing unity.

The 2020 pandemic has brought so many new words that now appear regularly in our everyday discourse. My number two choice is coronavirus. I like the word corona and will forever associate it with cold frothy beer on a sunny bougainvillea-draped terrace in Mexico. Le Cervase maz fina! Alas not this year.

Why does this pesky virus have to be so stunningly beautiful in appearance? My friend Lynda’s daughter, Keitha McClocklin, is an art student and above is her depiction. This dangerous deadly microscopic parasite is just enchanting in all its depictions. Those spiky appendages have the power to penetrate our cells and seriously damage us. They have to be neutralized, which is what the vaccine does. Was Keitha’s artist mind foretelling our future when she depicted many different manifestations of the virus? We now know there are variants; UK, Brazilian and South African variants with likely more to come. According to Keitha’s imagination, there may be a Scottish one on the horizon.

How do we make sense of beauty and the reality of disease and death that are so entwined in this beautiful and deadly virus? Do we see life more clearly when we experience the shape of death? This is an old theme. Snow White embodies it. She is pristine and virginal in her death sleep. Many have found a quiet beauty in their lives when the world has stilled and locked down. For me, I confess, it would be easier if the virus simply looked ugly and despicable.

Lastly I choose a word that if I never hear again it will not be too soon.

You got it! Unprecedented. We seem incapable of any other words and the overuse of this word is a pet peeve of mine. Maybe it is true that no other year in my life has been as extraordinary, unparalleled, yes even unprecedented, as 2020. I don’t question that it has been a difficult year and that losses abound perhaps as never before. My daughter’s friends lost their parents to the pandemic. My grandkids lost their graduations and the reality of university lives where they went to class and socialized in person. I missed being in the Baltic for summer solstice. I have not seen my family for a year. And for some reason I am fed up with that word on everyone’s lips. Maybe my pandemic fatigue just needs to rage a little.

What will be the words of 2021? There is a longing for truth. How refreshing. A friend suggested hugbuddy. Maybe a world-wide eruption of hugging will occur. I have heard real offered, as relief from virtual. Perhaps experiencing crowd energy again would be amazing at a theatre, a concert or a game. I am choosing vaccinated. I am expecting that the process (two doses plus wait time) when completed will release a joy in my being. I promise to crank up a sea shanty and dance on the front lawn. After that there will be family plans, travel plans… and dreams will once again flourish for us all.