'Doomsurfing', 'Doomscrolling' are new words that may enter our dictionaries soon

With coronavirus outbreak affecting people's way of living, one might see two new words in the dictionary soon, doomsurfing and doomscrolling, meaning when a person scrolls through bad news on his/her phone, even though that news is saddening or disheartening to see. The introduction of the new terms in the dictionary might happen very soon as the famous Merriam Webster has mentioned the words in 'Words We're Watching' list. Words We're Watching talks about words that are increasingly visible in use but that have not yet met the criteria for entry.

Read: Racism Definition To Be Updated By Merriam-Webster Dictionary On A Woman's Request

According to reports, the Los Angeles Times mentioned the word doomscrolling in a recent article about how coronavirus has introduced a vocabulary of new words into our daily lives. The word has been trending ever since. However, a journalist named Karen Ho, who has been posting regular posts on social media to stop doomscrolling and go to bed has said that she spotted the term on Twitter in a post from October 2018. So, it is still unclear who coined the word, but for now, social media can be credited for inventing the term. 

Read: Urban Dictionary Has A Name For People Hoarding Essentials Amid Coronavirus Crisis

"Doom connotes darkness and evil; hence its use in (usually antagonist) character names like Judge Doom (from Who Framed Roger Rabbit), Doctor Doom (The Fantastic Four), and in titles like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. But the word originally referred to law or ordinance (especially in Anglo-Saxon England) and later a kind of judgment. (Yes, Judge Doom’s name literally means “Judge Judgment.”) Eventually, doom came to refer to one’s fate—particularly the kind for which we’re all headed in some way. Before it meant “a time of catastrophic destruction and death,” doomsday referred to a day of final judgment.," Merriam Webster on the origin of the word doomsurfing wrote in a blog post on its website. 

Read: Anand Mahindra Wants The Word ‘webinar’ To Be ‘banished’, Netizens Agree

Other words to enter our vocabulary

Ever since the lockdown has begun, several new coronavirus-related words have entered people's vocabulary, the most popular one being 'COVIDIOT'. There are other words like Webinar, Quarantini, Zumping, WFH, Coronaspeck, Covidient, Zoom-bombing, Virtual-happy Hour that have also become popular at the time of lockdown.

Read: https://www.republicworld.com/lifestyle/festivals/world-laughter-day-quotes.html