The coronavirus crisis has not only completely turned our lives upside down, it has also added to the German language like no other event before.
Over the past year, Germans were "overzoomed" with too many video conferences, and turned the word lockdown into a Denglish verb, "gelockdownt."
They also further applied their love of abbreviations to define a set of recommendations to avoid spreading the virus. What started as the "AHA" rules was extended to "AHACL" — A for "Abstand" (distancing), H for "Hygiene," A for "Alltagsmaske" (face mask), C for "Corona-Warn-App" (Germany's virus tracing app) and L for "Lüften" (airing).
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Virus bomber and corona hair: The Germans' creative pandemic language
Lockdown
"Lockdown" and "shutdown" have became part of everyday vocabulary in Germany. And since they're also combined with descriptive terms, the possibilities of creating new words are endless: "hard" and "light" were the most popular, but "yo-yo," referring to ever-changing lockdown rules, was another one, as well as "Flockdown," when heavy snow ("Flocken"=flakes) keeps everyone inside anyway.
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Virus bomber and corona hair: The Germans' creative pandemic language
Maskenmuffel
The term Maskenmuffel, which combines the words mask and the colloquial word for grump quickly emerged last year when people in Germany, too, were required to wear face masks in trains, on busses and in stores. Some "grumps" refuse to wear facial coverings — but face fines if caught.
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Virus bomber and corona hair: The Germans' creative pandemic language
Abstandsbier
Remember packed bars and crowded beer gardens? These days, Germans can count themselves lucky if they can get together for what has emerged as Abstandsbier — literally a "distance beer," a neologism that refers to having a drink with someone while keeping a safe distance.
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Virus bomber and corona hair: The Germans' creative pandemic language
Corona-Matte
In mid-December 2020, hair salons in Germany were closed down. Their customers' hair didn't stop growing, which led to the neologism "corona mat." To everyone's great relief the salons were allowed to reopen on March 1 because of what was deemed their "importance for personal hygiene." No gardening shears required.
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Virus bomber and corona hair: The Germans' creative pandemic language
Distanzunterricht
When schools are shut down, that means online classes and remote learning courses for teachers and students. The German term for this, "Distanzunterricht" translates as "distance classes." The alternative came with overloaded servers and technical glitches: the present situation shows how badly German schools struggle with digitalization.
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Virus bomber and corona hair: The Germans' creative pandemic language
Impfdrängler
The issue of vaccinations is a touchy one in Germany, with vaccines trickling in much too slowly and confusion surrounding the effectiveness of one particular vaccine for older people. Meanwhile, some people who weren't on the priority list used their position to jump the queue and get vaccinated sooner. But "Impfdrängler," or vaccine cheats, face hefty fines.
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Virus bomber and corona hair: The Germans' creative pandemic language
Wellenbrecher
In reactions to the different waves of COVID infections, the restrictions set up in Germany were referred to as a "Wellenbrecher," a wave-breaker, or breakwater. The term was used extensively last fall when stricter measures were introduced like a kind of protective structure to stem another wave of infections.
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Virus bomber and corona hair: The Germans' creative pandemic language
Virenbomber
Wherever you look, there is the "fight" or the "war" against the virus. So the "Virenbomber" (virus bomber) is a fitting image, referring to people or perhaps even institutions that allegedly contribute greatly to the spread of COVID-19.
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Virus bomber and corona hair: The Germans' creative pandemic language
Homeoffice
Germans call working from home instead of from the office "home office." It is not a new term, but has been used much more frequently during the pandemic. The German government stipulates that employers must offer their employees the option to work from home wherever possible to bring down infection numbers.
Author: Dagmar Breitenbach
A list of over 1,000 COVID-inspired terms
The Mannheim-based Leibniz Institute for the German Language (IDS) has listed more than 1,000 new words that are all related to the pandemic. For each term, the institute quotes a newspaper article where it was used. Whether first adopted by the population or popularized through political discussions, the words reflect how German-speaking countries dealt with the pandemic over the past year.
One of the tricks of the German language is to combine existing words to give them a new meaning, which allows it to creatively reflect different attitudes towards coronavirus-related developments, with "Klopapierhamster" (toilet paper hamsters) and "Covidiots" making headlines for their selfish behavior ahead of the first wave.
A Carnival float mocking 'toilet paper hamsters'
"Gesichtskondom" (face condom) and "Schnutenpulli" (snout sweater) appeared as humorous ways to describe the face mask.
Some of those combined words are all borrowed from the English language, such as "Social-Distancing-Shaming," which refers to people who scold others for not keeping a safe distance in a public space, or "Superspreader-Events," a phenomenon that was observed worldwide, through which some specific gatherings led to a high number of infections.
Click on the above gallery for more German words that were coined during the coronavirus crisis.
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