One of the bibles of the French language, Le Petit Larousse, is to include a record number of new words many of which have emerged from the coronavirus epidemic, reports The Guardian.
The 2022 edition of the famous illustrated dictionary contains 170 additional entries to reflect what its editors describe as an unprecedented year of challenges both in health and language.
“I’ve never seen such a linguistic change. It reminds me of what happened during the French revolution, an upheaval, the appearance of new words and meanings and above all a collective appropriation of the language,” Bernard Cerquiglini, a professor of linguistics and scientific adviser to Le Petit Larousse, told France Info.
Among the new entries are Sars-CoV-2 and Covid-19 nouns, which take the feminine ‘la’ form, asymptomatique, quatorzaine, a 14-day quarantine period, réa for reanimation or intensive care, and télétravailler, home working. Perhaps less obvious is coronapiste, a cycle lane introduced during the Covid crisis.