Every year the various major dictionary publications of the world and other sundry literary associations select a ‘word of the year ‘. Much like the ‘Man of the year’,‘newsmaker of the year’ and other such awards, there also exists a word of the year.
For example, in 2005 the new oxford American dictionary announced ‘Podcast’ as the word of the year. The American dialect society for example selected the word ‘she ‘as the word of the millennium in the year 2000. Apparently there was no word she before the 12th century.
As this year is rapidly drawing to a close, all the publications must be working overtime selecting and nominating various words for the ‘word of the year ‘title. I have one word as my entry for the word of the year. And that is ‘Chikungunya’.
Chik what? That seemed to be the first reaction for most of us when we first heard the word. MS word doesn’t recognize it still; maybe it needs an outbreak in the US for that to happen. Anyway, as per Wikipedia..
"Chikungunya is a relatively rare form of viral fever caused by an alpha virus that is spread by mosquito bites ".
As you can detect from the above, this chick thing is a fever, a pain that is in the news in India this year for all the wrong reasons. People across the country have been infected by this disease, with many fatalities as well. Though this disease is not considered to be fatal in nature, this had taken epidemic proportions in various parts of the country.
And why should I select this word. It is because it gave me a week of peace and freedom. From office, from irritating customers who call at the drop of a hat and from the daily mundane chores of office work. So what if you had a 102 deg fever and joint pains for a month. I used the opportunity to revisit my DVD collection, enjoy the Chennai rains from my window and add to my downloaded music collection. It was all about finding the good thing in the bad.
The funny thing was that when news first broke out about this disease, thanks to its name, people associated this to be another ‘bird flu ‘and soon the sales of chicken started falling! Chikun was seen as chicken and lo, the poultry was facing another crisis. But soon people knew that this had nothing to with the winged bird that people eat, but with the other smaller winged creature that feasts on us. The mosquito.
All said and done, let this word be a phenomenon only for this year! We do not need new specimens of diseases to add to the English dictionary.
For example, in 2005 the new oxford American dictionary announced ‘Podcast’ as the word of the year. The American dialect society for example selected the word ‘she ‘as the word of the millennium in the year 2000. Apparently there was no word she before the 12th century.
As this year is rapidly drawing to a close, all the publications must be working overtime selecting and nominating various words for the ‘word of the year ‘title. I have one word as my entry for the word of the year. And that is ‘Chikungunya’.
Chik what? That seemed to be the first reaction for most of us when we first heard the word. MS word doesn’t recognize it still; maybe it needs an outbreak in the US for that to happen. Anyway, as per Wikipedia..
"Chikungunya is a relatively rare form of viral fever caused by an alpha virus that is spread by mosquito bites ".
As you can detect from the above, this chick thing is a fever, a pain that is in the news in India this year for all the wrong reasons. People across the country have been infected by this disease, with many fatalities as well. Though this disease is not considered to be fatal in nature, this had taken epidemic proportions in various parts of the country.
And why should I select this word. It is because it gave me a week of peace and freedom. From office, from irritating customers who call at the drop of a hat and from the daily mundane chores of office work. So what if you had a 102 deg fever and joint pains for a month. I used the opportunity to revisit my DVD collection, enjoy the Chennai rains from my window and add to my downloaded music collection. It was all about finding the good thing in the bad.
The funny thing was that when news first broke out about this disease, thanks to its name, people associated this to be another ‘bird flu ‘and soon the sales of chicken started falling! Chikun was seen as chicken and lo, the poultry was facing another crisis. But soon people knew that this had nothing to with the winged bird that people eat, but with the other smaller winged creature that feasts on us. The mosquito.
All said and done, let this word be a phenomenon only for this year! We do not need new specimens of diseases to add to the English dictionary.
2 comments:
Wonder what the roots of that word are ? Doesnt sound English or Mallu or French.
Its of tanzanian origin if iam not wrong
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