Oxford Languages picks 'Aatmanirbharta' as the Hindi word of 2020
There was a massive increase in the usage of 'aatmanirbharta' following the PM's address.
By PTI |
BCCL
Previous Hindi words of the year are Aadhar (2017), Nari Shakti (2018) and Samvidhaan (2019).
NEW DELHI: 'Aatmanirbharta' implying self-reliance has been named by Oxford Languages as its Hindi word of the year 2020 as it "validated the day-to-day achievements of the countless Indians who dealt with and survived the perils of a pandemic". The word was chosen by an advisory panel of language experts Kritika Agrawal, Poonam Nigam Sahay and Imogen Foxell.
The Oxford Hindi word of the year is a word or expression that is chosen to reflect the ethos, mood, or preoccupations of the passing year, and have lasting potential as a term of cultural significance.
In a statement, Oxford Languages said in the early months of the pandemic when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced India's COVID-19 recovery package, he emphasised the need to become self-reliant as a country, as an economy, as a society and as individuals, in a bid to navigate the perils of the pandemic.
There was a massive increase in the usage of 'aatmanirbharta' following the prime minister's address, highlighting its increased prominence as a phrase and concept in the public lexicon of India, it said.
One of the standout successes of the entire Aatmanirbhar Bharat campaign is the large-scale manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccine in India. During the Republic Day parade, the Department of Biotechnology highlighted the Aatmanirbhar Bharat campaign and showcased the COVID-19 vaccine development process in its tableau at Rajpath.
"In an unprecedented year, 'aatmanirbharta' found resonance with a wide cross-section of people as it is seen to be an answer to the revival of a COVID-impacted economy," said Oxford University Press India managing director Sivaramarkrishnan Venkateswaran.
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Agrawal said amid a number of interesting and topical entries received, 'aatmanirbharta' stood out because it validated the day-to-day achievements of the countless Indians who dealt with and survived the perils of a pandemic.
This word "gives a voice to the strength displayed by young and old alike in dealing with extended periods of isolation, lack of familial support, loss of livelihoods and other difficulties through sheer determination and self-reliance", she said.
Previous Hindi words of the year are Aadhar (2017), Nari Shakti (2018) and Samvidhaan (2019).
While the Hindi word of the year has great resonance for the year in which it was chosen, it doesn't mean that the word will automatically go into any Oxford dictionaries.
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From Anti-Buddies To Quarantini, 11 New Words That 2020 Gave Us
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Historically, every new era has a set of words associated with it. The Covid era is no exception to the trend. With social distancing becoming the norm of the day, a large number of new words were introduced this year to communicate the experiences of the global population effectively.
There is a slew of new words that have seamlessly entered our vocabulary and perfectly show the sheer absurdity and the strangeness of the times we are living in. For instance, the word ‘pandemic’ ruled ‘word of the year’ for most dictionaries including Websters and dictionary.com.
Meanwhile, the Oxford English Dictionary just couldn’t settle on one word for the year (given how eventful it has been). On the other hand, ‘Lockdown’ was the word of the year for Collins dictionary, while Cambridge Dictionary settled with ‘quarantine’.
However, some words were invented by people that didn’t make it to dictionaries but found their way into daily conversations. Here are some of them.
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With restrictions on movement, office meetings and lectures moved online and that was when some mischievous students started sharing the meeting IDs with their naughty friends who then went on to crash the Zoom meetings, often saying something rude, profane or anything that is unwelcome by the attendees.
The act of crashing Zoom meetings where you aren’t invited and creating chaos is called Zoombombing.
Several of the Zoombombing videos went viral on the Internet and garnered millions of views on YouTube. Most of them included mischievous students showing up uninvited on Zoom calls and distracting the students and teachers.
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Covid-19 antibodies are the need of the hour. When the novel coronavirus enters our body, our immune system produces antibodies in response to fight the virus.
However, anti-buddies are two friends who have tested positive for Covid-19 antibodies and can hence hang out together.
Talk about friendship that can transcend the boundaries of quarantine!
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Self-isolation and quarantine can be lonely and take a toll on your mental health. But that is when quaranteams come to the rescue. Quaranteams are a group of Covid-free neighbours who come together to create ‘pods’ and spend some quality time with each other.
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