[Ads-l] scariant - scary variant of the virus that causes Covid-19

[Peter Reitan]

Is "scariginal" a word?

________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
Sent: Thursday, May 13, 2021 12:15:55 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: scariant - scary variant of the virus that causes Covid-19

---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      scariant - scary variant of the virus that causes Covid-19
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Several websites have articles in 2021 containing "scariant" or
"scariants", e.g., wired.com, webmd.com, irishtimes.com, and
theguardian.com. I checked barrypopik.com and did not see "scariant".

Here are some early tweets. The meaning of "scariant" is ambiguous in
the first tweet below, but the same tweeter uses an unambiguous
instance thirteen days later.

[Begin twitter info]
https://twitter.com/FlBirder/status/1345484848765480960
Tweeter: FlBirder @FlBirder
Timestamp: 4:39 PM =C2=B7 Jan 2, 2021
Replying to @amandajs78 and @braceberg1
It's actually a SCARIANT.
[End twitter info]

[Begin twitter info]
https://twitter.com/FlBirder/status/1349957823619354628
Tweeter: FlBirder @FlBirder
Timestamp: 12:53 AM =C2=B7 Jan 15, 2021
Replying to @themodalice
It morphed into the SCARIANT highly intelligent super spreader
Italian, British, fill-in-the_____, country mutation of Covid 19.
[End twitter info]

There is an earlier match which equates "scariants" to "variants of
scary", but the tweet does not refer to the Covid-19 virus.

[Begin twitter info]
https://twitter.com/calbo/status/222309442631368707
Tweeter: Cal Wilson @calbo
Timestamp: 8:41 AM =C2=B7 Jul 9, 2012
So many variants of scary. Scariants. RT @courteneyh: i'm scared that
this will give me nightmares: http://bit.ly/ukGjA3
[End twitter info]

Garson

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