Due to COVID we have some new vocabulary words never heard before or words that were rarely ever used. A few examples are Pandemic, COVID-19, green shoots, social distancing, flatline, reopening the economy, recovery, ventilator, N95 face mask and path to profitability. These words are all in response to the COVID crisis that has gripped our nation, lives and economy.
The news outlets refer to such terms as, buzzwords or sound bites. Meaning they are new to the conversations and applicable to this time period. In two or three years you probably will not hear many of these terms again.
It always tickles me when someone comes up with a new term and everyone jumps on the word and uses it repeatedly to show how smart and current they are. I remember back in the 2003-2005 time period when everyone in business started using the term, space, to define their business. It was used in a sentence like, “in our industry space we have traction that is accretive to yield.” Sounds almost stupid doesn’t it? Well that is how new terminology starts. My favorite new term for COVID is “green shoots.” The term was first used in 1991 to describe signals of economy recovery in a downturn. In the last 29 years, I don’t believe the term has been used again until now.
With every historic event, there are new word terms that get created to explain the situation. They are generally short lived and not used again until the next event. I find that the old ways and old terminology still work just fine. If I want to really sound like a goober, I could use the terms, space and green shoots in the same sentence. Ha. KT