[Ads-l] "pandemic", v.

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Wed Aug 5 04:21:10 UTC 2020


> On Aug 4, 2020, at 11:10 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> Laurence Horn wrote:
>> Two meanings.  One is ‘to be confined by the pandemic’ or ‘to spend the pandemic’
> 
> Here is a Jan 25, 2020 tweet together with a reply containing the
> phrase "pandemicked in". The sense appears to match: confined due to a
> pandemic.

So still “brand-new” by the old WOTY definition (no earlier than 2020).


> 
> Tweet From: Mike @FuctupMike
> Tweet Timestamp: 10:56 PM · Jan 25, 2020
> [Begin tweet body]
> I should make a beer run.
> [End tweet body]
> https://twitter.com/FuctupMike/status/1221280846042337280
> 
> Tweet From: Trump Loyalist Mueller (pro-hoarding) @jdirt2004
> Tweet Timestamp: 10:59 PM · Jan 25, 2020
> [Begin tweet body]
> We're about to be pandemicked in for a few weeks.
> [End tweet body]
> https://twitter.com/jdirt2004/status/1221281378991513600
> 
> Urban Dictionary has a definition for pandemicking.
> 
> [Begin Urban Dictionary excerpt]
> TOP DEFINITION
> pandemicking
> The act of shopping or otherwise preparing for a pandemic, but doing
> so in a too-late stressed-out manner, thus not getting much and
> further contributing to the chaos.
> I had better get to the store before the pandemicking starts
> by Levisan March 16, 2020
> [End Urban Dictionary excerpt]
> https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pandemicking
> 
> There are tweets in 2014 containing "pandemicking" although the
> meaning is not very clear (to me).
> 
> Garson
> 
> Continuation of LH message below:
>> “As new information comes in, we update our priors all the time,” said Susan Holmes, a Stanford statistician, via unstable internet from rural Portugal, where she unexpectedly pandemicked for 105 days, while visiting her mother.
>> https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/04/science/coronavirus-bayes-statistics-math.html
>> 
>> That inspired me to google “pandemicked”, since the past tense or participle would eliminate the much more prevalent noun lemma.  And that’s where the other meaning of “pandemicked” comes in:
>> ‘To be canceled or otherwise affected by the pandemic’
>> As in “What to do if your wedding has been pandemicked”
>> 
>> I’m not sure how frequent this meaning of “pandemic” as a transitive verb would be, since the only plausible subject would be the pandemic itself.  Maybe “Covid-19 pandemicked my school”?
>> 
>> LH
>> 
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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