Irish Examiner view: 2021 favourite?

Collins Dictionary has named “lockdown” as its Word of the Year 2020 after a sharp increase in its usage amid the coronavirus pandemic. Picture: iStock

It is hardly surprising that the Collins Dictionary has nominated “lockdown” as its Word of the Year 2020. The restrictions behind that simple eight-letter word have been so spectacular, so confining for societies and economies, families, and relationships too that it is hard to think of an alternative idea as ubiquitous or all-pervasive. Lockdown is more than the word of 2020, it is the year’s enduring reality even if “pandemic” and “mask” challenge it for the title.

Lockdown has already ruined many couples’ wedding plans, sports festivals even the Olympics. The performing arts sector struggles as never before. Lockdown has challenged airlines in an unprecedented way and maybe even this country’s wonderfully warm pub culture is in Covid-19 jeopardy. Christmas may yet fall to its demands. Lockdown has indeed turned our world upside down. Despite all that grim reality, maybe too much of it, life moves ahead and invites us on to the next adventure. That dynamic was in play just this week when what must be an early favourite for the Word of the Year 2021 became apparent — “vaccine”.