‘Remdesivir’ enters the Oxford English Dictionary - Times of India - Dictionary

Hyderabad: While in April and July 2020, several new words linked to Covid-19 were added to Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the anti-viral injection Remdesivir is the new entry word in the June 2021 update. The word was added due to extensive use during the second wave of Covid-19 in India and elsewhere in the world.
OED, in the release notes, said that 700 new word entries, senses and additions to existing words entered the dictionary. OED said in the update notes that the coronavirus pandemic continues to show an impact on language.
For instance, the word ‘social distance’, first recorded in 2004, is widely used from 2020 with a meaning ‘physical distance maintained between individuals to avoid transmission of infection.’
‘Stay-at-home’ is used in a new sense of adjective with stay-at-home orders. It was earlier used in 1893 during the cholera outbreak as a stay-at-home policy. The Oxford Language 2020 report on the words of an unprecedented year mentioned the word ‘unmute’. Due to video conferencing and work from home, ‘unmute’ has widely been used.
Hyderabad-based English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU) professor K Venkat Reddy said, “Extraordinary times result in extraordinary innovations and inventions. Language has always responded to such situations; be it world wars, social upheavals, revolutions, epidemics or the current apocalyptic Covid-19 pandemic. Language users invent and reinvent ways and means to use the language effectively to suit the needs of the hour.”