[Ads-l] origin of the term "coronavirus"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Since most people have never heard of a coronavirus, and because the
disease has no colloquial name, it must just seem natural to call the
disease "coronavirus."

Cf. "Nobody wants to get the Ebola virus" and "Nobody wants to get Ebola."

JL

JL

On Mon, Mar 16, 2020 at 7:29 PM Chris Waigl <chris at lascribe.net> wrote:

> On Mon, Mar 16, 2020 at 3:20 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > I don't hear "Nobody wants to get the coronavirus."
> >
> > What I hear is "Nobody wants to get coronavirus."
> >
> > The "19" in Corona Virus Disease 19" simply means "2019."
> >
> > I first heard of coronaviruses ten or twenty years ago (or more) as the
> > family responsible for the common cold.
> >
> >
> What relevance do you attach to the presence or not of the definite
> article?
>
> Where I sit, the usage an/arthrous use seems to be pretty indiscriminate,
> jumping around even within the same text:
>
> ===
> People are more likely to get the coronavirus by picking it up from a
> surface and touching their face than they are to breathe in droplets
> directly from someone who is infected, said William Sawyer, a family doctor
> in Sharonville, Ohio.
>
> https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/02/26/how-to-prepare-for-coronavirus/
> <
> https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/02/26/how-to-prepare-for-coronavirus/?arc404=true
> >
> ===
> You’re Likely to Get the Coronavirus
> https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/02/covid-vaccine/607000/
> ===
>
> Etc.
>
>
>
>
> Chris Waigl . chris.waigl at gmail.com . chris at lascribe.net
> http://eggcorns.lascribe.net . http://chryss.eu
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


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