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How the netizens are getting with the corona slang
Indians are using the corona slang to take digs at others over the Internet. Read on.
Did you know the French word for the 14-day isolation period is ‘quatorzaine’? Or that the Dutch word for hoarding is now ‘hamsteren’? A Pomeranian puppy is seen with rolls of tissue paper on his four paws in this Instagram post by a fellow netizen with the hashtag hamsteren.
Leave it to the lot of millennials and Gen X or Y-ers to come up with a new language while the rest of the world grapples with the covid-19 pandemic. The coronavirus, which has drastically altered life around the world, is now making its way into the minds of the younger generation who find English and all other wordly languages limiting to describe the phenomenon.
The most popular term that has cropped up in the last few days on social media seems to be ‘covidiot’ — an adjective describing someone who ignores public health advisory. A word so popular it has over 21,700 posts on Instagram alone. Even actor Sonnali Seygall felt the need to join the bandwagon. Her post on Instagram was captioned: This pic is dedicated to all the Cov-idiots who are still stepping out of the house (sic). A synonym for the ‘covidiot’ is the ‘moronavirus’, which has the word ‘moron’ imbibed.
One of the terms that blew up the internet is ‘coronaspeck’. A German word for the weight gained during quarantine or quatorzaine.
As repetitive behaviour gives rise to patterns, the most common one with a looming pandemic is the continuous search for updates and scrolling on social media, which has come to be known as ‘doom scrolling’. And those who have developed an unhealthy fear of contracting the virus are said to suffer from ‘coronaphobia’.
The new ‘c’ language is flooding the internet and is quickly becoming the time-saving typing option. A snazzy term for the deadly coronavirus that gets its name from the crown shaped thorns around its membrane is the ‘Ms Rona’. The Economist jotted the origin of this word down to the queer and black communities. While the Land Down Under has its own list of short forms. For instance, hand sanitiser has become ‘sanny’ and self-isolation has turned into ‘iso’, as cited in the Daily Mail.
A few other terms:
Magpie — adj. Australian term for one who hoards. Someone magpie’d all the tissue paper at the store.
Quarantini — noun. Cocktails had at home. How would you like your quarantini?
Coronials — adj. Babies conceived during the coronavirus lockdown. I hope someone names their coronial daughter Rona.
Coronapocalypse — noun. Referring to the end of the world due to the coronavirus pandemic.
