‘Doomscrolling’ and ‘rona’ top Macquarie Dictionary word of the year picks

Pour one out for amateur word-watchers. Ordinarily, a passing interest in word of the year competitions is a relaxing, even enjoyable pastime.

See a novel noun or germane gerund? Write it down, return to it around November, and see if a dictionary agreed with you.

Not so this year. Coronavirus is the ur-topic; compared to it, all else seems trivial. As early as March, the US lexicographer Grant Barrett had lockdown and self-quarantine among a swag of viral terms he’d predicted could take the gong.

By May, betting markets had already named COVID-19 the heavy favourite. For the many organisations involved , the question became not, “What will word of the year be?” but rather, “Which COVID term will get it?”

The organisations that choose…